Smokin' Hot
by feari teiru
Summary: In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?", and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."
1. Chapter 1

Smokin' Hot

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?", and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."

1; Luck

Levy McGarden was a lot of things. She was a trustworthy friend. She was almost embarrassingly short. She was honest. She was quick witted and smart. However, although she was all these things and many more, there was one thing Levy McGarden was not. And that was good in the kitchen.

No matter how many times the poor young woman tried, she just simply couldn't stop her food from becoming a blackened charcoaled mess that would requires tons of oven cleaner to remove the evidence from the bottom of the contraption.

She was ashamed to admit it, but just a few weeks ago she had managed to burn water, a feat she hadn't even thought was possible, but somehow she had managed to do it.

Her total lack of cooking skills was a running joke amongst her small circle of friends, and although she would usually laugh along with them, tonight she felt nothing short of stressed.

Why on Earth couldn't she be blessed with her mother's skills in the kitchen? The woman was something akin to a goddess in that department and was the owner of a rather successful restaurant franchise. She knew her mother would probably have a heart attack if she knew that her eldest daughter normally survived on the various take out stores near her home, and that she was having difficulty cooking a small lasagne for two.

Grumbling lightly about the unfairness of it all, the blue haired 23 year old donned her rarely used oven-mitts and tentatively pulled open the door to her oven.

Her light blue eyebrows crinkled in confusion as a large cloud of smoke billowed out from the contraption, sending her reeling backwards, lest she wanted to endure a coughing fit. Her lasagne had only been in the oven for about fifteen minutes, surely there was no way it could have already begun to burn?

After prodding at the food with a heavily scorched spatula, she decided that unless she wanted to suffer from yet _another _bout of food poisoning, then she better leave it in for a while longer. Besides, she still had to get ready after all.

With a newly found spring in her step, the petite young woman spun the timer on her oven and then happily bounded out of the kitchen.

By the time she had entered her bedroom, the lasagne bubbling away in the oven was already a distance memory.

Humming as she skipped, she couldn't help the mega watt grin from spreading across her face. She had been looking forward to this day for the better part of three months, and, although she would never in a million years admit it to anyone, had been crossing the days off on a suspiciously heart shaped calendar, (which she hid under her mattress, away from prying eyes). Today was her one year anniversary with her long time boyfriend, David Eversford, and she knew he was the man she wanted to marry.

He was, in every sense of the word, absolutely perfect. With his dashing good looks, charming personality and impeccable manners, _and _both her parents approved of him! He was every girls dream man and she considered herself extremely lucky to have snatched him up. As she ran a brush through her blue locks, she allowed her mind to wander back to the day they had met, an almost dreamy smile clouding her features.

They had met on a rainy day. She had been attempting to lug four bags of shopping home in the torrential downpour and as such, hadn't been able to put up her umbrella. She was thoroughly soaked to the bone and freezing cold to boot, but she still ploughed on through the storm. She had been tempted to try and ride it out under a bus shelter or something, but something told her that the storm would be a long one, and there was no way she could stand outside in the freezing cold for hours.

She was only a few blocks away from her apartment block when she saw him. Well, that was a lie. She didn't see him, at first all she saw was his car. She stepped into the road to cross, but saw the car and took a step backwards, deciding that she didn't particularly want to be run over, thank you very much. Unfortunately for Levy, she didn't step back quite far enough and the car was driving dangerously close to the curb. Before she even had time to scream, the car had driven through the inevitable puddle of water that had piled up beneath the curb, and Levy and her bags of shopping with submerged in dirty sewage water.

Seeing that he had accidentally splashed a poor innocent woman, David had reversed, apologised profusely, offered her a ride home, and…well, the rest was history

Although she had had the most terrible cold for a week after the event, Levy was glad that he had splashed her. She was, without a doubt, the luckiest girl in the world.

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.

.

Gajeel Redfox knew, without a doubt, that he was the unluckiest man in the world. He'd known this for a long time now, since he had turned seven really. He didn't know what it was, but for some reason Lady Luck seemed not to like him at all. Every time he thought he was finally getting a break in life, something would immediately come and knock him back on his ass.

He slapped a large hand over his mouth to cover his yawn as he slouched into the kitchen to try and drum up some coffee. It was only 8 o'clock and he was already close to collapsing, how the hell was he supposed to survive another seven hours of this?

"I shouldn't even be here," he growled as he slammed down the tiny handle on the kettle, causing it to start boiling his water.

Leaning against the counter, he used his fingers to count off exactly how many late shifts he had done this week. If he remembered correctly, (although considering how sleep deprived he was, he guessed it could have been more), this would be his _fifth_ late shift and he knew there was no way in hell that his pay check at the end of the month would reflect all his hard work.

"Fucking Blondie," he muttered, wrenching open a cupboard and fishing around for his favourite mug, not really caring that he may have shattered a few others whilst he looked for his own. He was supposed to have been on early shifts all week, but something that involved a wager with Laxus Dreyar about who could down the most alcohol in ten minutes at the bar on Friday night had ended in him switching shifts with the blonde devil. Oh, he had protested the results of the bet when he finally sobered up. He was drunk after all! You can't trust a drunk mans words, but _noooo_, nobody would listen to him and instead he had to face Laxus' smug smirk as he signed the official shift swap sheets the following Monday.

The only thought that kept the man relatively sane was that he would get his revenge one day, and Laxus would rue the day he ever tried to mess with him.

"Still plotting against Laxus, huh?"

Gajeel snapped his head up sharply and found two other members of his team grinning at him knowingly.

"Fuck off Salamander. Stripper," he said, nodding respectively to the two men as he spoke the nicknames he had personally chosen for them, "I'm not in the mood."

"We can tell," Stripper, otherwise known as Gray Fullbuster, noted, stepping further into the kitchen, "there's almost an aura of bad energy surrounding this place cause you, you know?"

"When are you gonna learn," Salamander laughed, otherwise known as Natsu Dragneel, completely ignoring the look of absolute fury on Gajeel's face, "nobody can out drink Laxus-"

"I resent that!"

Another voice joined the mix and all three men looked up to see the only woman on call that night enter the kitchen.

"Oh yeah," Natsu corrected, "nobody _but _Cana can out drink Laxus."

"Thank you," the brunette smiled appreciatively before hoisting herself up onto the counter, "he still moping about it?"

"Yup," Gray answered, fumbling about in the cupboard for his mug, "jackass won't shut up about it. Laxus this. Laxus that."

It was only due to the fact that they had all been on a team together for the better part of three years that Gray knew to duck as Gajeel hurled his mug at the poor man's head.

"You know," Natsu pretended to look innocent as he leant against the counter, "for a man of the law, you're pretty violent."

"_Fuck off!_" Gajeel spat before storming out of the second exit.

Yup, it was a certainty, he was definitely the most unlucky man in the world.

.

.

.

She wasn't an expert, but she did think she looked rather good. Donned in a light yellow dress with a plunging neckline that stopped just below her knees, and a pair of strappy black sandals, she thought she looked perfectly fine for a nice romantic dinner between the two of them. She had even taken the time to put on horribly revealing lingerie set her younger sister had given her for Christmas last year. Tonight was going to be a special night after all, and she wanted to put some effort into her appearance. She often worried that David might not like the fact that she didn't often wear pretty dresses, or spend painstakingly long hours on her hair and make up. But apparently her fears were fruitless, as here they were, a year later and as happy as ever.

At exactly five minutes past eight, she heard his traditional knock and she all but hopped to the door. Every time she saw him, she always felt a sliver of electricity jump through her body. With his long curly brown locks, chocolate eyes, angular jaw, and ever so muscled body hidden under his clothes, he was something of an Adonis.

"David!" she smiled as she opened the door to greet her lover, "you look great."

And he did, dressed in a smart black suit with a dark red bow tie, he looked as if he were about to jet off to a fancy party somewhere.

"Come in," she took a step backwards and let him in, not noticing that he had yet to say a word, "you know, I didn't think you'd get so dressed up for this. I mean, I know it's our one year anniversary but _really_, you're making me feel underdressed!"

Giggling lightly, she signalled for him to sit on the couch while she disappeared to get them something to drink. It was a good thing that she had already begun to dance off to get the drinks when she mentioned their one year anniversary. Otherwise she would have definitely known that something was wrong. At the mention of the word anniversary, his mouth dropped open and his eyebrows shot up, almost disappearing into his hairline.

"Shit," he mumbled, running a stressed hand through his curly locks.

"Hmm?" Levy asked, reappearing with two glasses and a bottle of rather expensive wine. It wasn't usually to her tastes, but it was David's favourite drink and she knew he would appreciate it, "did you say something?"

He sighed before answering.

"Look…Levy, can you sit down? We…" he gulped, "we need to talk."

Something about the tone of his voice told her that what he was about to say, wasn't going to be good news. Still, she took a deep breath and smiled brightly at him. She loved him. He loved her. Right?

"Sure," she gently sat down, placing the glasses and bottle on the coffee table in front of her, "what is it?"

Glancing furtively at his watch, he began, "I know this is going to be hard for you, but I have to do it. I can't pretend anymore…"

"David?" she reached out and clasped his hand in her own, "what's the matter? You can tell me anything, you know that right?"

"I can't do this anymore," he spat out quickly, jerking his hand away from Levy's and standing up abruptly, "I can't do _us _anymore."

With those five simple words, she felt her world begin to crumble around her. She could only stare at him as he babbled on.

"I've been feeling like this for a while now, and…and it's not fair to you. I can't keep stringing you along like this. I care about you too much and-"

Something that sounded like a mixture of a sob and a chuckle fell from her lips, "you _care_ too much?" she repeated quietly, "David if you care so much why are you doing this? On our anniversary no less?"

"Truth is," he mumbled, kneading the back of his neck with his hand nervously, "I'd completely forgotten about that. I'm sorry."

She shook her head wildly. This couldn't be happening to her. The best thing about the last year of her life couldn't be leaving her. This had to be some sort of dream…no, some sort of nightmare.

"David, I love you," she croaked, "please…don't…"

"There's someone else," he said bluntly.

For all it was worth, he could have punched her in the stomach. She felt physically winded by his words.

"I've been seeing her for almost two months and I know I should've ended it with you as soon as I met her, but I couldn't. I'm so sorry Levy but I can't do this anymore, I can't keep hurting you like this."

"Two months?" she repeated quietly, feeling the tears beginning to fall from her eyes, "so, all those times," she gasped for breath, "all those times you held me and told me you loved me these past two months, they were all a lie?"

"No, no Levy," he stared at her with pleading eyes, "I did love you! I _do _love you, I'm just not in-"

"Stop!" she grabbed the throw spread of her sofa and fisted it in her hands, "don't say it. Don't you dare say it."

David stood awkwardly watching his now, ex-girlfriend whimper on the sofa.

"I," he coughed, "I hope we can still be friends and-"

"Get out," her voice was barely over a whisper but he heard her loud and clear, "just go David. I don't want to see you again. Ever."

Not needing to be told twice, he quickly apologised once more before dashing out of her apartment. She half hoped that he'd return in a moment, saying it had all been one big joke and he loved her dearly and that he could never cheat on her. But she knew he wouldn't.

Still crying, she stood up shakily. She picked up one glass and the bottle of wine from the coffee table and then slowly made her way to her bedroom.

He was gone.

The man she had wanted to marry was gone, and he wasn't coming back.

By the time she reached her room, her howls of anguish were loud enough to wake the neighbours.

The lasagne of course, was long forgotten.

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.

.

Being a fire fighter wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. Sure, the pay was decent and you made friends that lasted a lifetime, (as much as Gajeel hated - and boy did he hate it - to admit it). But the hours were lousy, the coffee budget didn't stretch far enough, and there could be nights after nights where you didn't get a single call. Meaning you and three other poor souls were left hanging in the fire house for nine hours doing god knows what.

Still, as much as he complained he knew that he wouldn't want to work anywhere else. Although, he did often find himself wishing that they got more work. The most exciting job he had had in the last week was rescuing a cat from a tree. The cat had been an odd blue colour and Natsu had taken a liking to it. The last he had heard, the cat was living with Natsu and had been christened "Happy".

The almost deafening sound of the fire alarm ringing jerked Natsu, Gray, Cana and Gajeel into action at about 9 o'clock.

"Alright," Natsu whooped as he grabbed his protective coat and began to run towards the truck, "I call shotgun!"

The feeling of adrenaline pumped through all their veins as they ran for their truck. There was just something strangely exhilarating about putting your life on the line to combat the bright orange menace more commonly known as fire. Even Gajeel couldn't help but grin as he hopped onto the back of the truck as Gray set the sirens whirring.

_Finally, some action._

It always amazed Gajeel how, whenever a fire appeared, people would soon flock. And sure enough, when they arrived on the scene the parking lot of the apartment complex was packed the brim with spectators who were all staring in shock at the burning building before them.

"Okay," Natsu said once they had all gotten off the truck, "Gajeel, Cana you deal with the evacuation, get everyone from the building separated from the idiots looking. Make sure there's nobody left in the building. Me and Gray'll deal with the fire."

On a normal occasion, Gajeel probably would've rather eaten his own fist than take orders from Natsu, or anyone else for that matter, but in a situation like this, order was needed and Natsu outranked him.

"Cool!" the pink haired man grinned before slapping Gray on the back, "let's do it then!" the two ran round the other side of the truck to grab the hose, leaving Cana and Gajeel to deal with the public.

Thankfully it only took Natsu and Gray about 15 minutes before they managed to squash the fire before it began to spread throughout the whole apartment complex. As it stood, only a small corner was still burning, and judging by its size, that could be dealt with within ten minutes.

Gajeel and Cana were charged with evacuation duty. As well as putting out the fire, making sure all the people were evacuated a safe distance away from the building was also extremely important. Still, that didn't mean Gajeel had to enjoy it. He hated dealing with whiny kids crying about their burnt teddy bears. Or angry old couples, demanding that he tell them when they could go back home, as if their home wasn't burning to a crisp right before their very eyes.

"Alright!" he roared, deciding that the polite approach Cana was going for, ("Hello, how are you? To your knowledge, has everyone you know of been evacuated from the building? Can you see them here?"), simply wasn't working.

"Look around you, are all your family members accounted for? Are all your neighbours accounted for? If not, _and only if not_, please step forward immediately!"

There was a scuffling sound as everyone began looking around to make sure everyone they knew was there. For a second, Gajeel thought he had gotten off lucky and that for once everyone had evacuated the building and he wouldn't need to do a daring rescue mission, but no. Lady Luck couldn't even give him that.

"Levy!"

He jerked his head upwards to find a middle aged man stepping forward.

"Levy McGarden, she's my opposite neighbour and…oh God…I can't see her here!"

Gajeel narrowed his eyes and step forward, tugging his fireproof helmet over his head as he went,

"What floor and apartment number is she in?"

"F-floor 4 and apartment number 19C. Oh God, is she going to be okay? Is she…"

Gajeel didn't even bother listen to the rest of what this man had to say, instead he simply groaned. A quick glance up at the building told him exactly where she was. Of course the one missing person would be in the only place that was still on fire.

_Lady Luck you bitch, _he growled to himself as he began to make his way into the building, almost missing Cana's shout for him to be careful.

It took him about eight minutes to run up the stairwell to get to the fourth floor, and with every step he took he could feel the heat becoming warmer and warmer. Instinct told him that the fire must have originated on the fourth floor, and he was becoming increasingly more worried that it originated in this Levy person's apartment.

Her door was charred when he reached it, telling him that he was right. Her apartment had been the originator. Sighing, he unhooked the axe from his back and without hesitation, ran at the door with it. Thanks to the fire damage, the wooden was a lot less sturdy than what it would have usually been and snapped in two rather easily, sending him barrelling into the furnace that he assumed would have once been Levy's lounge. There were three doors leading off from the lounge. One had been completely burned through, and from what he could see, was once a kitchen. A fearsome fire was raging in the kitchen and he quickly ruled out the chances of her being in there. Even if she was, there was no way she was coming out alive.

"Oi? Levy? Are you in here?" he bellowed as he ran through the rapidly burning living room and pushed open the first door, which led to a bathroom. He quickly strode into the bathroom and pulled back the shower curtain.

"Great," he mumbled, exiting the bathroom and running to the next door, just once, _once_, he would've liked to find his missing person in the first room he looked in.

"Levy?" he yelled, pushing his way into the next room and finding a bedroom. What he saw made him double take. Lying in bed, seemingly undisturbed by the raging inferno that was surrounding her, was a small blue haired young woman. As he walked deeper into the room he noticed an empty bottle of wine lying on the floor next to a glass.

"Oi!" he called, tugging a fireproof blanket from his rucksack and wrapping her in it carefully. He couldn't help but notice she was dressed rather nicely for someone who had planned to just get drunk and full asleep, "wake up Jesus Christ!"

She simply stirred, causing him to growl before easily scooping her up into his arms and make a mad dash for the exit. Now air had been let into the apartment, he knew there was only a matter of time before the fire grew even wilder.

What the hell were Gray and Natsu doing down there?

He made sure the blanket covered her petite body completely before tearing through the living room and out into the corridor. Whilst the blanket would protect her from burns, he needed to get her out of the building before she inhaled too much smoke.

With her in his arms, it took him twelve minutes to exit the building, and it didn't help that every now and then she would fidget and stretch her arms and legs out, inadvertedly slapping or kicking him with every movement.

By the time he made it back outside, the fire on the fourth floor was almost completely doused and the girl in his arms began to stir even more.

She was an odd little thing he decided. With bright blue hair, she looked like someone you'd expect to see in a comic book. Though, he supposed he'd seen worse - Natsu did have bright pink hair after all. Without warning her eyes shot open and he found himself staring into the most expressive pair of eyes he had ever seen in his life. They were a warm chocolate sort of colour and he could see her innocence in them.

She blinked exactly three times before speaking.

"Oh dear. I burnt the lasagne didn't I?"

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**A/N: **The idea of all the Fairy Tail characters as fire fighters wouldn't leave me alone, so _voila! _And you have to admit, Cana would be a hot as hell fire fighter. Review please ^_^


	2. Chapter 2

Smokin' Hot

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?", and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."

2; Rude

Guilt washed over her as she stared at the slowly smouldering building that had been her home for the past two and a half years. The fire fighters had done an amazing job of putting the blaze out, and now all that was left was a swirl of ominous black smoke.

The entire eastern side of the complex had been reduced to a charcoaled mess, and she couldn't help but think about how many homes she had inadvertedly destroyed. Even now, from her perch on the bench that gruff fire fighter had unceremoniously dropped her on, she could see many familiar faces rushing about on their mobile phones, trying to arrange somewhere to stay.

A dry sob fell from her lips as she watched the woman who lived two apartments down from her, clutching her young sons hand as she hopped into a taxi.

She wanted to do nothing less than crawl into a hole and hide herself away from the world for as long as humanly possible. How could she face these people ever again, knowing that she had accidentally destroyed their lives?

What about _her _life?

She belatedly realised that whilst her neighbours had seemingly had enough time to quickly grab as much of their belongings as possible before the fire had gotten out of control, she had nothing apart from the clothes on her back.

It seemed preposterous, but just hours ago she was dashing around her room, giggling like a school girl at the prospect of her boyfriend coming to visit. And now? Now she was sitting on a damp bench, considering the fact that in that short space of time, her life had quite literally fallen apart.

With the shock of David abruptly leaving her, and then accidentally falling into a drunken sleep filled with bad dreams, and _then_ forgetting about her food in the oven, causing her to burn down not only her own home, but the home of countless others as well, it was a wonder that she wasn't a hysterical mess yet. She was close though. If one more bad thing happened to her, well, she was 100% sure she would simply snap.

After all, how much despair could one young woman take in one day?

.

.

He wondered if perhaps he should call for an ambulance for the young blue haired woman - whose name he had already forgotten - he had rescued from the blaze. As far as he could tell, she suffered from no obvious injuries. Her bare arms and legs were burn free, and he had done his absolute best to make sure she inhaled as little smoke as possible when he had gotten her out of the burning building.

Still, after he had 'gently' placed her on a nearby bench she had done or said absolutely nothing apart from wrap the blanket tighter around her shoulders and stare blankly at the apartment building. Or, what was left of it. Every now and then something that sounded like a mix of a hiccup and a sob would escaped from her mouth and he half wondered if he should say something to comfort her, but quickly decided against it.

He wasn't her damn counsellor after all. He was a fire fighter who was stuck with her whilst Natsu and the others finished making sure all the other building's residents were safe and uninjured.

It was really quite annoying actually. Here he was, risking his life to save hers, and she hadn't even mumbled a word of thanks yet. He would never admit it, but perhaps he did have the _tiniest, __**tiniest**_hero complex. Nothing as big as Natsu's of course, but it was there. And who could blame him? He risked his life for strangers practically everyday, was it so wrong to want a bit of praise?

Now, it was well known amongst his group of slightly unorthodox, (or completely insane, as Gajeel liked to put it) friends that Gajeel wasn't the most comforting person to be around at the best of times.

He just lacked empathy.

When Macao's latest girlfriend callously dumped him, he had simply shook his head before growling out, _there's plenty more fish in the sea_. Completely forgetting that Macao actually (probably) loved that particular girlfriend.

When Lucy's father suddenly passed away he ignored her tears and asked, _didn't you hate him? _Earning himself a whack in the face with the nearest fire extinguisher.

When Juvia wept about her precious Gray-sama not returning her feelings he would roll his eyes and say_, shut up. _

Yes, Gajeel Redfox lacked tact, which is why none of his friends would find it surprising when they found out how he dealt with Levy.

Instead of nicely waiting for her to overcome her obvious shock…he prodded her.

As in, he got his forefinger and roughly poked her in the shoulder.

"Oi."

He prodded again.

"_Oi!"_

This time she turned her head to stare at him, but said nothing.

"Are you okay?"

She inhaled slowly before speaking,

"I…" she paused and he noticed her line of vision drift over towards the apartment block, "well. Given the circumstances," she finished off with a shrug.

"Right, well it's my job to tell you that the fire originated from your apartment," he said gruffly, deciding that since she was apparently ok, there was no need to tread gently with her anymore. Not that he was treading all that gently in the first place anyway. But this is Gajeel we're talking about after all.

She nodded, having already surmised that this was the cause.

"The police will probably be in contact with you shortly. But," he added quickly, noting that her face had fallen and she had begun to fist the blanket tightly in her hands, "from an initial observation, it's pretty much a certain that the fire was accidental. It…was accidental, right?"

Once again, she nodded, "I burnt my lasagne," she said simply, a crooked smile spreading across her cheeks, as if she were remembering an inside joke of some sort.

Gajeel frowned, wondering just how long the lasagne had been in there for _and _the state of her oven to cause a fire that bad.

The sound of her sniffling lightly snapped him out of his thoughts and he looked up to find her wiping her nose with the back of her hand. The distinct sound of her crying softly met his ears and he instinctively took a step backwards. No way in hell was he going to have to deal with a crying woman at this time of night. He surveyed the area quickly and groaned, finding that Cana, Natsu and Gray were all otherwise engaged and wouldn't be able to come to his rescue any time soon.

Sighing, he retook his step forward and reluctantly plopped himself down on the bench beside her.

"I'm…I'm… ~hic~…I'm so sorry," she cried, her hiccups interrupting her as she wept, "did ~hic~, did anyone get hurt?"

He grimaced, this was his worst nightmare.

"Nobody got hurt," he said bluntly, hoping that his clipped reply would discourage her from talking even more. Alas, he probably should have learnt by now, that nothing was ever as simple as that.

"T-that's ~hic~, that's good, I guess," she sobbed, rubbing her eyes violently as she tried to still her tears.

His eyes involuntarily darted towards where Cana stood, talking to an elderly couple, and then to Natsu and Gray who were each talking to a family.

"Look." he growled, fed up of her tears, what was it his father used to say to him when he was younger?, "there's no point in crying over spilt milk."

Feeling quite proud of himself for remembering the phrase, he turned towards her an offered her a cocky smirk.

"Split milk?" she repeated quietly, her eyes widening, "you're trying to compare me burning down my _home_ to a glass of spilt milk!"

Well, now he thought about it, the comparison was a pretty stupid one.

"I…I don't have anywhere to live. I don't have any clothes. I don't have any food. I…I don't even have a _toothbrush_!"

He was quite amazed by her sudden outburst. She was glaring at him with wild, tear stained eyes, her bottom lip stuck out determinedly and her small hands were balled up into tiny fists.

"So," she breathed angrily, "I'm sorry, Mr. Fire Fighter, but if I want to cry about it, I'm going to cry!"

"Gajeel."

"What?" she snapped, her anger still bubbling near the surface. Deep in the back of her mind, she knew she was being extremely rude, yelling at the man who had probably saved her life, but she couldn't help it. This had been quite possibly the worst day of her life, she was stressed beyond belief, and her emotions were going haywire. Taking it out on someone felt so unbelievably good, that she couldn't help herself, even though she knew she was probably acting like an ungrateful little brat.

To her surprise, instead of scowling at him and snapping back on her, he still wore that unbelievably cocky smirk from before.

"My name isn't _Mr. Fire Fighter_. It's Gajeel."

She frowned before offering him up an apologetic smile and mumbling, "Levy. Levy McGarden."

He nodded to himself, remembering that was the name the man had given before he entered the apartment complex to rescue her.

"Sorry about that," she said suddenly, "I didn't mean to snap at you."

He snorted derisively and waved a careless hand in front of her face, "you call that snapping at someone? If you want to offend _me_, you'll have to try harder than that."

And it was true, whilst it was common knowledge that Gajeel did have a quick and feisty temper and he would be the first to slam his fist into Natsu's face first thing on a Monday morning, it did take an extraordinary amount of taunting to truly make him angry.

She half glared at him for a few seconds, not appreciating his light insult, before shaking her head and sighing.

"I'm such a mess," she grumbled, more to herself than to him but he heard it either way.

He disagreed with the whole mess part of her statement. Beside from the puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks, he could admit that was rather…cute. She reminded him of something fairy or pixy like, with her slightly frame and impish expressions.

He was startled to hear another choked sob come from her and could see she was about to start a fresh new wave of tears.

"S-sorry," she cried quietly, noticing the way he had begun to slightly edge away from her, "I'm try-trying not to cry, I really am!"

"Try harder," he growled, once again showing his total lack of tact.

She glared up at his once more, trying to rid her face of those damn tears, "well what would you h-had been responsible for burning down not only your home, but all your neighbours as well?"

"I wouldn't have been stupid enough to burn lasagne of all things," he retorted, causing her cheeks to turn a bright red.

"It's a complicated meal, thank you very much!" she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. It was baffling, but she'd known this man for barely an hour, and he had already teased and infuriated her enough to last a lifetime.

"Only for an idiot."

"I suppose you could do better?"

"I," he said proudly, puffing out his chest slightly, "happen to be an excellent cook, _thank you very much_," he mimicked her choice of words.

She raised an eyebrow in disbelief, surveying him. From his unruly appearance, she knew she never would have guessed her was a fire fighter. Long, spiky, black hair fell messily down his back and over his face - surely that was a fire hazard? His face was covered in tiny metal studs, and, unless she was mistaken, _he didn't have eyebrows_ and instead three piercings sat above his eyes, as if they made up for that fact that he was missing them. Dressed in the baggy red fire fighters uniform, she couldn't tell much about his body's physique, but from the way he rolled his sleeves up she could see rippling muscles. All of this coupled with his rough and brash demeanour told her that there was absolutely no way _he _could be a better cook than she. It was preposterous.

"Don't you have anything to be doing," she said briskly, deciding she didn't particularly want to be in his presence for much longer. Hero or no hero, he was still horribly obnoxious and rude.

He cocky grin faltered slightly and he narrowed his eyes, "yes, making sure you're safe."

"Well I am."

"Good."

The pair sat glaring at each other for what felt like an eternity before Levy finally caved in and sighed. She quickly surmised that he was a very stubborn man and there was no point in trying to stare him down, unless she wanted to be there all night.

"Fine," she said before standing up from the bench and walking away, "good bye."

"Where the hell are you going?"

She did not answer, instead she abruptly stopped walking.

"Oi?"

She ignored his shouts and stared up at the remains of her home. In her haste to get away from Gajeel she had momentarily forgotten his reason for being there. The charcoaled mess before her reminded her however and she felt sick.

_I don't have a home. _

"Do you have anywhere you can stay for a while?"

She jumped slightly, not even hearing him approach. The gentleness in his tone surprised her a little bit and she nodded, not trusting her voice.

"Good," he mumbled before reaching into his pocket and pulled out a mobile phone.

"W-what are you doing?" she asked quickly, her voice sounding like she was about to collapse into tears at any moment - and she probably was.

He ignored her for a few moments and dialled a familiar number,

"_Good evening Edolas Cab's at your service, you can I help you?"_

"Hey Lily," Gajeel growled as his old friend answered the phone, "I need a favour."

Levy blushed, "I can do it on my own you know!"

Gajeel simply snorted as if to say, _your phone and all your money got burnt down, shut the hell up and let me help you. _

It was funny how much one person could gain from one simple snort.

"Oi, where are you going?"

"Eh?" not the most smart thing she'd ever said, but as it stood, it was the only thing she could think of.

"An address, I need an address."

"Oh! Um, 32 Mea-" she paused, her heart almost stopping as she realised what she was saying. Without even thinking, she had gone to relay David's address.

"What?"

She barely heard Gajeel's confused exclamation at her lack of response. With all the panic of the fire, and then having to deal with the rather blunt Gajeel, she'd practically forgotten about her recent heartbreak. But now he was in the forefront of her mind again and she felt sick. Whenever she had an emergency, or a problem, she would always just run into David's arms, it felt strange to know that that was no longer an option for her.

"89 Oxbow Drive," she finally said quietly, turning away from Gajeel so he would not take note of the fact that her eyes had begun to prickle with unshed tears. She sat shakily down on the bench and tried to allow the cool night air to wade over her face to calm her down.

"Whose address was that?" Gajeel asked quietly as he too took his place back on the bench beside her, "the cab'll be here in about ten minutes by the way," he added.

"My parents."

"Ah."

They sat in an odd sort of silence until the cab arrived, neither particularly wanting to talk. Levy was mulling over her now destroyed love life and Gajeel, well if you didn't force Gajeel to talk to you, he sure as hell wasn't going to initiate the conversation.

If either of them had bothered to notice, then they both would have realised that whilst they did sit in total silence, it wasn't an awkward silence, instead it was rather comfortable.

Ten minutes passed like a blur and before she knew it, a small black taxi had pulled up on the curb. Gajeel waved nonchalantly to the dark man who was driving.

"Cabs here."

She nodded, still feeling numb. Slowly she stood up and began to tug off the blanket he had given her whilst rescuing her.

"Thank you," she said earnestly as she handed him the blanket, "thank you for rescuing me, I should've said it earlier."

"S'alright," he said gruffly, running a hand through his hair as he pretended to grudgingly accept her thanks.

"I…I know sitting here with me probably wasn't what you wanted to do. But thank you."

Without waiting for a response from the brash fire fighter, she shot him a sad smile before turning around and walking quickly towards the taxi.

He watched as she mumbled a few words to the driver and within a few seconds, the car was off, leaving him alone.

He shook his head as he turned away, she was a strange one. It wasn't often that he would meet someone outside the fire department who could tolerate his brutish manner, and even hold their own against him.

As he turned around he realised that most of the residents had been sent on their way, the fire was out, and he was so damn hungry.

He wondered if Natsu would let them stop off for something to eat before they left.

.

.

The ride in the cab gave her a lot of time to think. And cry.

She didn't want to know what the poor driver thought, having a strange woman sitting in the back of his car, weeping like a baby, but she was grateful that he didn't ask.

Her life was undoubtedly ruined. She didn't even know if her insurance would cover the amount of damage and loss the fire had done to her home.

What about her job?

All the resources she'd slaved over for months and months to complete, gone. Burned into a crisp in an instance.

And David.

Well, her heart just ached every time she thought about him. Even though he put her through so much heartbreak, she couldn't help herself. She loved him.

"We're here," the cab driver suddenly said, snapping her out of depressing thoughts.

She glanced up out of the window, and, sure enough, they were there. The homely looking cottage she had grown up in. A flickering light in one of the downstairs windows told her that at least someone was awake and she sighed with relief. Her family were notoriously deep sleepers, and she didn't fancy waiting until morning for someone to let her in.

"Thank you," she said to the cab driver before recoiling backwards in horror, "I…I don't have any money!" she realised in embarrassment.

Expecting the driver to immediately turn the car around and drive back, she was rather surprised when he simply shook his head and said,

"Gajeel sorted it out. It's fine."

"He…he did?"

The driver nodded.

"Oh…um," she sidled towards the door and pushed it open, "thank you very much. A-and, if you see him again tell him I said thank you. Please."

"Will do, goodnight."

She waved to the driver as he drove down the road before taking a deep breath and shuffling up the path to her parents home. As usual, the garden was in pristine condition, the lawn was mowed, the flower beds were full of exotic flowers and the hedges neatly trimmed.

She pressed the doorbell and could clearly hear the familiar _ding dong _of the bell ringing through the cottage. It took a few seconds, but eventually she heard the sound of footsteps hurrying to the door and then,

"Levy!"

She smiled weakly as her mother opened the door.

"Hi mummy," she whispered, falling into her mother's warm embrace.

"Come inside," she ordered, dragging her eldest daughter inside the house, "what are you doing here at this time? Where's your jacket? It's freezing out there for goodness sake? Have you been crying? You've been crying haven't you? _Greg!"_

Levy grimaced as her mother began hollering for her father. She loved her mother to pieces, she really did, but the woman was so damn overbearing sometimes. Levy hadn't even been in the house for a full minute and already her mother had asked enough questions to make her head spin.

"What _are _you doing here?" she asked, turning her attention back to her daughter, "I mean, not that we don't love seeing you, but it's minutes to midnight."

Levy grinned sheepishly before saying quietly, "I…I may have burnt down my home."

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**A/N: **Hi guys, Merry Christmas for yesterday, (or today depending on time zones!), I hope you all had a good day. I wanted to upload this yesterday, but my grandmother had a strict _no internet _rule so that was out. Anyway, thank you for reading and reviewing and please keep doing it *hint hint hint*


	3. Chapter 3

Smokin' Hot

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, "how did you and Daddy meet?", and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."

3; Home Again

Caroline McGarden loved both of her daughters with all her heart, she truly did. And she was proud of both of them, but…

"You burned _lasagne?_"

She couldn't pretend that the fact that neither of them had inherited her culinary skills didn't feel like a knife to the chest.

"How could you burn lasagne of all things?" Caroline howled, clutching at her heart dramatically, "it's so simple! You just need-"

"Sweetheart," Greg McGarden cut in sharply, knowing only too well that his wife was probably about to enter a hysterical fit, "I think you're missing the point here."

"Missing the point? _Missing the point? _Greg, our 23 year old daughter just burnt la-"

"Burned her _house _down," Greg finished off for her, shooting his wife a pointed stare.

Levy swallowed thickly as she watched the realisation dawn on her mothers face as she realised that, to most people, burning a house down took precedence over burning lasagne.

"Right," Caroline said slowly, "right. Well, sit down and I'll make you your favourite dessert."

Despite the situation, Levy couldn't help but smile as she settled down onto one of the stools by the counter and watched her mother potter around the kitchen, throwing open cupboards pulling out ingredients and utensils to make Levy's favourite dessert; blueberry pancakes.

The making of desserts whenever someone was feeling down was a sort of tradition in the McGarden household. Levy couldn't remember one occasion where either she, her sister, or her father had had a bad day that hadn't ended with her mother dashing into the kitchen and whipping up their favourite dessert.

She had moved out just over three years ago and she could honestly admit that she had missed this. She hadn't been home to visit her parents in over a month, something she felt guilty over now, but she was glad to see nothing had changed.

Caroline was still the same air headed woman who seemed to forget everything else around her when she was cooking, or was working on a new recipe. It was almost laughable how different she and Levy truly were. Not only with regards to cooking, but in looks as well.

Levy, for arguments sake, was something of a midget. 23 years old and she only just about managed to hit 5 foot 4. Caroline on the other hand was close to the 6 foot mark. Unlike Levy, she had a "normal" hair colour of deep black that reached down to her mid back but was nearly always worn in a tight bun, mainly because she spent so much time in the kitchen. The only similarity the two shared were the thin rimmed red spectacles Caroline occasionally wore.

Levy was more like her father in the looks department. Greg was short, he was only an inch or two taller than Levy. She inherited her unusual blue locks from him and he also wore glasses, though unlike his wife and Levy, he wore them permanently. Whilst Caroline tended to put all her energy and time into cooking and her restaurant, Greg found his forte in gardening. He taught horticulture at the local college, and spent any free time he had preening the large garden that surrounded their small cottage.

"What's the silly smile for, eh?" Greg asked gently, snapping Levy out of her reverie, "I'd of thought you would be sitting here bawling your eyes out."

She smiled sheepishly after realising that she'd been completely zoned out for a few minutes, "I guess you could say I'm all cried out," she admitted, remembering exactly how much crying she had done in the taxi.

"_Six _blueberry pancakes," Caroline suddenly called out, placing a small plate in front of Levy containing the delicious looking dessert, "go on, eat up while they're still warm."

"Thanks," she murmured quietly, dropping her gaze from both her watchful parents as she picked up the knife and fork that had been given to her.

Her parents allowed her to slowly eat her way through the savoury dessert in silence for about five minutes before Greg finally spoke up.

"So," he said heavily as Levy swallowed the first half of the fourth pancake, "have you thought about what you're going to do?"

She paused before slowly shaking her head, "I just wanted to get away from the…the building if I'm honest. I…I was kinda hoping you wouldn't mind if I stayed here for a while, j-just until I can get back on my feet?"

"Of course, of course," Caroline said straight away, "you'll have to share with Rianne though, your old room's been turned into your fathers study."

"That's absolutely fine," Levy replied with a grateful smile, "where is Rianne right now anyway?" she asked, wondering why her sixteen year old sister hadn't come to greet her yet. Despite the relatively late hour, Levy knew there was no way she would be asleep.

"She's sleeping over a friends house, she'll be back tomorrow afternoon."

Another silence ensued for a few moments and Levy picked up the other half of her pancake, intending on devouring it.

"What about David?" Greg suddenly said.

Levy, quite literally, spat the pancake out.

"_Levy_," Caroline reprimanded, a disapproving frown on her face.

"Sorry," she mumbled quietly, trying her best to ignore the sudden tugging of her heart as she remembered David. It was laughable, but she had almost forgotten about the whole terrible David ordeal.

Greg frowned, "is there something the matter Levy?"

She didn't answer straight away.

Instead she slowly put down her knife and fork and placed her fists in her lap below the counter, doing her best to hide the way her fists clenched in sorrow.

"Levy?"

"Are you okay?"

"We broke up," she spat out bitterly, the words feeling like poison on her tongue, "earlier on tonight, actually."

She tried her best to ignore the looks of surprise and sympathy on both of her parents faces.

"Oh, oh…Levy," Caroline simpered, leaning across the counter and wrapping her arms around her eldest daughters shoulders, "I can't believe it, you two were perfect together, I-"

The sound of muffled cries cut her off and she immediately said nothing, instead decided to tighten her grip around Levy's shaking shoulders.

.

.

.

An appreciative groan of pleasure escaped his mouth as he literally collapsed on top of his bed, not even bothering to kick his feet out of the thick boots.

It was just after 5am, and the sun was beginning to rear it's bright head over the horizon, and Gajeel Redfox was looking forward to a solid 12 hours sleep, and he wasn't going to accept anything less than that.

After they'd made sure the apartment complex wasn't going to spontaneously combust during the night, all the residents were safely away from the building, and the correct safety barriers had been set up they finally got to return back to their headquarters. But _noo_, that wasn't the end of their duties.

A scowl formed on his face as he remembered how he had lost the subsequent coin toss and _he _had to fill out the twenty pages of paperwork. It was enough to drive anyone insane and he was extremely grateful that he had the next two days away from the mad house he called work.

"Damn Fairy," he mumbled, slowly trying to inch off his work boots, referring to the blue haired woman he had rescued from the fire.

He hadn't forgotten her name, but with her bright blue hair and slight frame it didn't take much for him to imagine a pair of feathery like wings attached to her back.

The left boot dropped to the floor and with a grunt of approval he worked on shimmying his right foot free.

Lily had called him as soon as he had dropped Levy off at her parents house, and he wasn't surprised to hear from his old friend that the young woman had spent practically the whole journey bawling her eyes out.

He actually had to hand it to her, he was pretty impressed that she'd managed to still her tears whilst she was around him.

_Ahah! _His eyes closed in satisfaction as he heard the distinct thud of his right boot hitting the floor. In a flash he wiggled out of his trousers, flung them across the room and did the same with his shirt. In seconds he was happily sprawled comfortably under his blankets.

As he welcomed the sleep he deserved, he couldn't help but let his mind drift to the young "Fairy" he had rescued earlier.

There was one part of their brief conversation, or argument - depending on how you looked at it, that bothered him.

He knew that he wasn't the most receptive guy already, but he was almost 100% sure that when he had asked her for an address, she had been about to relay a different one to the one she ended up giving to him.

And, unless he was mistaken, her demeanour took a turn for the worse after that moment. He could almost feel the sadness surrounding her aura after that moment and it bothered him slightly.

It was none of his business, he knew that, and he didn't particularly care but he had to admit, it did intrigue him.

Still, it was unlikely he would ever see the woman again so he shrugged off any memories of her and quickly succumbed to a well needed sleep.

.

.

.

She groaned as she rolled over in bed, tugging the blankets up higher over her head to ward off the treacherous rays of sunlight that dared to peak through the slits in the curtains.

She didn't care that, judging by the brightness, it was probably the afternoon already. The only thing she wanted to do was close her eyes and pretend that she wasn't lying in her younger sisters bed. That her home hadn't been burnt to a charcoaled crisp. And most importantly, that her boyfriend hadn't callously dumped her.

But unfortunately, Levy wasn't going to get that small little miracle.

The sound of the bedroom door being roughly slammed open, and then slammed shut caused her to groan once more and bury her head even deeper under the blankets.

There was a very poignant silence for a few seconds and Levy began to wonder if perhaps she had gotten off easy.

All hopes were soon shattered as she felt the distinct feeling of the bed springing downwards, indicating that someone had roughly jumped on it.

"Not even gonna say hi to your baby sister, hm?"

Against her better judgement, Levy poked her head out of the blankets and tried to send her sister a scathing glare. It didn't work, Rianne had long ago become immune to Levy's rather half hearted glares.

"Hey Ri," Levy mumbled, shuffling slightly so she could sit up in the bed, "I guess mum and dad already told you what happened?"

Rianne rolled her eyes as she nodded, "she did, yeah, I've been home for about 45 minutes you know? She just spent most of that time whining about you burning _lasagne_! God Levy, you should really think about the repercussions your selfish actions will have on others," she finished with a playful grin.

"Sorry," Levy replied with a grin of her own, "I almost got that lecture last night, thank _God_, daddy stopped her."

The two giggled good naturedly as they reminisced on their mother's extravagant behaviour when it came to cooking.

If you had seen Levy and Rianne walking along the street together, there would be absolutely no way that would think they were sisters. Most people never even realised that Levy was the older one.

Rianne had inherited their mother's height and black hair, which she had gotten cut into an extremely short pixie style that stopped just above her ear, and something else nobody had been expecting.

Whilst Levy and Caroline was both rather flat chested, Rianne was remarkably gifted in that department.

"So," Rianne finally said, by now the two sisters were each snuggled under the blankets side by side, "David, huh?"

"Yeah," Levy said heavily, immediately feeling that same aching pang in her heart as she thought of him.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Not really."

Rianne sighed and leaned over onto her side so she could see Levy's face properly, "this isn't one of those things you can keep bottled up, you know? It's good to talk about things."

"Since when did you become my psychologist?" Levy snorted as she thought about how their roles were completely reversed.

"Since daddy made me promise I'd comfort you," Rianne laughed, ducking as Levy chucked a pillow at her head.

"I'm fine! Really!" she added more insistently as Rianne raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

"It's 3pm and you were still lying in _my _bed with the blankets tugged over your head like a little baby."

"Point," Levy agreed.

With a light sigh she swung her legs out of the bed and teetered slowly towards the door, "I suppose I should get out and start putting my life together again," she murmured bitterly, "do you mind if I bother some clothes, I…well, you know."

"Go ahead, not sure how much will fit you though," Rianne stalked towards her wardrobe and pulled it open.

"Oh God, Ri," Levy gasped in shock as she stared at the bundle of clothes stashed inside the wardrobe, "have you never heard of hangers?"

The young teen laughed as she ducked into the mess and began rifling around, "too much effort. Ahah!" she crawled out with a bundle of clothes in her arms, "this is a bunch of stuff from a few years ago, they should fit you pretty well?"

"Fabulous," Levy remarked sarcastically, taking the bundle, "I'm wearing clothes my baby sister wore when she was 14."

"13 actually."

"Not helping!" Levy snapped, "I'm gonna shower. I'm borrowing a towel…and your shampoo," Levy called, picking up each item as she exited the room.

"Charming," Rianne called to her sisters frame, her voice lacking the annoyance she wanted.

They didn't see each other very often, especially since Levy had moved halfway across town, but - despite the awful circumstances -, Rianne was extremely happy to have her sister home again.

She had missed her.

.

.

.

"Look whose awake," Caroline commented as her eldest daughter sauntered into the living room.

"Hi," Levy smiled, easily slipping into one of the empty sofas.

In the end, Rianne's clothing had still been ever so slightly too big for Levy. The slim fitted jeans she wore had to be rolled up several times at the ankles to stop her from tripping and breaking something, and the sweater she had on kept slipping over one shoulder.

"Where's daddy?"

"In the garden" Rianne offered up, her eyes glued to the TV as she spoke.

Levy nodded in answer and took to staring blankly at the television set. It felt weird to be home. She loved her family dearly, but she couldn't help but think she didn't belong any more.

She needed to be home, in her own living room watching some silly afternoon movie with David by her side.

But none of that were possible any more.

She sniffled lightly before shaking her head. What was it that fire fighter, Gajeel, had said last night?

_There's no point crying over spilt milk_.

She had snapped at him when he had uttered the silly analogy, but now she thought back to it, it had actually been quite a good piece of advice.

Whilst she refused to minimise her problems to that of a cup of spilt milk, she understood what he had meant now.

There was simply no reason to cry over problems she couldn't solve. Instead of wasting any more time and tears she decided to focus her energy on fixing the problems she could solve.

"What are you doing?" Rianne asked as Levy abruptly stood up.

"I'm going to try and get my life back on track."

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.

Lucy Heartphillia yawned as she swung around pointlessly on her swivel chair, her eyes glued to the large grandfather clock that stood in the corner of her office.

_Only 2 hours left_, she mumbled happily in her mind.

She hated working the weekend shift, it was always so dull and most of the crew weren't in on weekends making the fire house rather boring.

Lucy wasn't a fire fighter, instead she worked in the administrative office. It was her job to deal with an press enquiries, make sure the shift timetables were all correct, make sure the crew were all paid on time and it seemed like most of the time her job was to keep them all sane, something that often drained on her own sanity.

She glanced over to her copy of the rota to check who was on call and sighed. Erza was the senior fire fighter on call for the weekend and, although Erza was wonderful and Lucy loved her, she could be quite irritating to deal with, especially if you wanted to goof off with the others.

"Come on, come on, come on," she moaned at the clock wondering if time had actually started going slower.

She was beginning to try and calculate her changes of survival if she snuck out of her office and went to see Juvia when the telephone to her right began to ring.

She frowned at the phone, it was the first time it had rung all day and she sincerely hoped it wasn't going to be a long enquiry.

"Good afternoon, Magnolia Fire Department. Lucy Heartphillia speaking, how may I help you?"

"_Um…hi! I…well my apartment was burned down last night and…well, I just wondered if I could find out when I could go back inside and try and collect some stuff that didn't get burnt to a crisp?"_

"Uhmm," Lucy hummed as she quickly skidded across the floor on the chair and grabbed the case files that lay on the opposite desk from the previous night, "_oh no_," she grumbled as she flicked open the file.

"_Is there something wrong?"_

"Gajeel wrote the file," Lucy mumbled absentmindedly, not really caring that the woman on the other end of the phone probably had no idea what she was talking about. Her eyes furrowed in annoyance as she tried to make out the mans messy sprawl.

"_Oh!"_

Lucy frowned as she heard a light giggle from the other end of the phone but pushed it aside as she reluctantly began to decipher Gajeel's handwriting.

"Okay, can I take your name please?"

"_Levy McGarden_."

"Ah!" Lucy's eyes widened in surprise, "lasagne girl, right?"

News spread quickly in the fire house and judging by her answering groan, Lucy had hit the nail on the head.

"_Lasagne girl?"_

"Sorry," she apologised, "it's just…that's one of the names he's written down on your file."

"_One of the names?"_

"He's also put Fairy down but I wouldn't pay much attention to it, if you met him last night you'll know what type of guy Gajeel is."

"_You've got that right."_

Lucy giggled as she heard Levy sigh in annoyance, making it very clear that Levy had definitely met Gajeel the prior night.

"So, I'm afraid the building still hasn't been cleared for the public to start returning into it. Health and Safety Inspectors don't work on weekends I guess."

"_Oh_,"

Lucy could practically hear the disappointment in her tone.

"I wouldn't worry though," she added quickly, "they normally work very fast, I expect you'll be getting a call from them and your insurance company once the cause of the fire is determined sometime next week."

"_And…and the police? Do you have any idea when they'll get in contact with me?"_

Lucy couldn't help but feel sorry for the young woman on the other end of the phone. From Gajeel's notes she guessed that the fire had genuinely been an accident and she was probably scared out of her mind.

"The police have been faxed our reports but I can't say when they'll get into contact with you, it should be within the next couple of days though."

"_Thank you," _she sighed, _"you've been very helpful."_

Lucy smiled, "try not to get to worried about it," she said kindly, "I'm sure the police will be very understanding, and if you have any problems with them - or your insurance company - just contact us and we'll sort it out for you, okay?"

"_Thank you! I'll be sure to do that, have a nice day."_

"You too, goodbye."

Lucy replaced the phone back in it's receiver and returned her attention back to Gajeel's messy case notes.

Never in her four years at working at the fire department had she seen Gajeel put so much effort into case notes.

Normally he would just scrawl a couple words down and submit that, normally meaning more work for her but this one was impeccable, apart from the messy handwriting. He had even added a few of his own unnecessary notes, like the random nicknames that seemed far too casual for the usually uptight Gajeel.

"Hm," she hummed deciding that this would be a good piece of gossip for the bar later on that night.

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**A/N: **BOP! Did you think I'd given up? Nop not me.

Ah, I've fallen in love with Levy's family especially Rianne aaaah

review please~


	4. Chapter 4

Smokin' Hot

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, "how did you and Daddy meet?", and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."

4; Gossip

As she ruffled through her fathers study, looking for the large telephone directory she _knew _he kept around somewhere, she made a mental checklist of all the things she needed to do to get her life back on track.

The first thing on her rapidly growing list was to contact the head teacher of the school at which she worked at and inform him of her plight. She hadn't really interacted with the man very often, save for the odd "good morning" or "good afternoon" greetings when they passed each other in the corridor, but from what she could remember from her interview he was a rather amiable man and she felt confident that he would understand her problem.

She would ask for a few emergency days off work, just to get over the shock of being rendered homeless and callously dumped (though she wasn't sure she would mention the latter) in a matter of hours and try to find herself a semi permanent place of residence.

She was very grateful that her parents had been so willing to take her back under their roof with open arms, but she couldn't deny that she felt uncomfortable staying there. Her time as one of her parents wards had long since passed and she needed to find her own place.

After sorting her job out, the next thing on her agenda was to contact her insurance company. She wasn't particularly looking forward to that phone call, but it was inevitable and she could only hope the fact that the fire had been her fault wouldn't do too much damage to her claim. The prospect of calling her insurance company also reminded her that sometime soon the police would be in contact with her and that was yet _another _annoying and still unavoidable conversation she didn't want to have.

The final task on her list was to find a new home. She had enough money in her savings account to put down a deposit and the first months rent if she dug deep enough into her account, on a small apartment. She knew she wouldn't be able to find anywhere nearly as nice as her old apartment with the limited amount of money in her account and the short amount of time she was giving herself to find somewhere, but she decided whatever she found would have to do. Mooching off her parents for an extended period of time would only leave a sour taste in her mouth and she just couldn't have that. Her parents had made it a point to teach their daughters the importance of independence whilst they were growing up and the lessons had been instilled in her thoroughly.

"Ahah!" she huffed triumphantly, tugging out the large white book from the bottom of a, what seemed to be, barely used drawer. A small smile gracing her lips, she settled herself into the comfortable chair her father kept in his study and opened the book on her lap. She automatically flipped towards the schools section of the directory, but decided against it. It was a Sunday afternoon and even though teachers did occasionally come into school on weekends to finish off some last minutes notes or prepare the classroom for Monday morning, those occasions were few and far between and she sincerely doubted the receptionist would be manning the office anyway. Making her decision, she quickly flicked to the private residence numbers at the back of the book and began to scour it for her bosses last name. She only hoped he wouldn't be too angry.

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.

.

Much to his annoyance, he woke up relatively early that Sunday morning. After having worked the late shift at least five days in a row, he was rather looking forward to having a long and lazy lie in that Sunday, but for some reason his body apparently had other plans for him and he soon found himself glaring angrily at his alarm clock when he realised it only read, "9:06AM".

"Flippin' crack of dawn," he grumbled angrily, still refusing to get out of bed even though he was wide awake. He would have his Sunday lie in, god damn it!

He rolled over onto his back so he was facing away from the damned alarm clock and took to staring up at his ceiling, with the hints of mild frustration etched into his face. He really wanted to go back to sleep. Just for a few more hours or so.

He sighed as he came to terms with the fact that getting a bit more sleep was simply not going to happen, and lying in bed mulling over the tragedy (and _yes_ it _was_ a tragedy) of not getting it was just going to infuriate him more.

With a reluctant sigh, he edged towards the side of his bed and swung his legs out, the mild shock of bare feet hitting the cold wooden floor waking him up slightly. Cracking his muscles as he went, a bad habit he'd developed a while ago, he stood up slowly and moved towards his bedroom door, but paused as he got halfway across the room.

He sniffed the air gingerly and frowned. In his many years as a fire fighter, the smell of smoke had become extremely noticeable to him and he could smell it from a few miles away. However, the distinct smell was coming from somewhere much closer to him. He quickly looked left to right and all around his room, searching for the smell before it dawned on him.

Chuckling lightly, he gingerly grabbed a bunch of his long hair and sniffed it.

Yup. Smoke.

Normally he would have a shower when he arrived home from work, to wash away the stench of sweat and smoke that inevitably clung to his body after a hard days work, but last night he had been so tired that the very idea of a shower had completely slipped his mind. His nose wrinkled in disgust as the smell of smoke permeated his senses once more, so he doubled back to his cabinet, pulled open a drawer and yanked a towel out before purposely making his way to the bathroom.

His stomach was asking for breakfast, but he knew he wouldn't be able to enjoy his meal whilst he still smelt of last night.

As he passed his stereo, he quickly punched the "on" button and turned the volume up considerably, so he would be able to hear it from the shower.

By the time he had stripped off his boxers and was quickly testing the water in his shower, his favourite CD began blaring his favourite song and a large wolfish grin spread across his face.

"_Colourful, colourful, shooby doo bop!" _he sang along with the CD as he stepped into the shower, the warmth of the water hitting his skin setting him at ease, _"tremble with love, steel gray metallic! Doo, doo, doo Shalala~~" _

If the whole fire fighter thing hadn't worked out, he was pretty sure he could've made it as a singer. Despite what everyone else said.

The warmth of the water helped to relax his aching muscles and ease the bad mood he had woken up with. Eventually his song ended and the CD moved on to another one, one he didn't like as much but was still familiar with so instead on singing along at full volume, he simply hummed and allowed his thoughts to drift.

Absentmindedly he reached for his shampoo and began methodically squeezing it onto his hands and massaging it into his scalp, doing his best to rid his locks of that damned smoke smell. Against his will, as the thought of the smoky smell entered his mind, he couldn't help but wonder if the blue haired woman he had met the previous night had suffered from the same plight as he. Something reminiscent of a sneer spread across his features as he imagined the petite woman scrubbing furiously at her hair trying to rid herself on the stench.

Served her right.

If he had to suffer from it, then so did she.

His shower lasted for twenty more minutes, until he felt thoroughly cleaned and relaxed, and until his stomach began growling in protest. He hopped out of the shower, wincing slightly as his feet hit the cold tiled floor, a sharp contrast to the wonderfully warm shower he had just had. He then grabbed a dark grey towel and quickly gave his hair a dry, not really caring that it was still fairly damp. Once his hair was dry to an acceptable level, he wrapped the towel around his body and left the bathroom, intent on going to the kitchen.

With his towel wrapped loosely around his waist he began rummaging through his fridge, deciding he would pop some food in the microwave whilst he chucked some clothes on. His nose wrinkled in annoyance as he stared at the relatively empty appliance in front of him. All those late nights at work had resulted in him either not being in to eat during the week, or if he had been in he had spent those precious scarce hours sleeping, thus he had forgotten to go shopping in a while.

With a resigned sigh, he plucked out a half empty pizza box and gave it a tentative sniff.

"No bad," he muttered, deciding that although he couldn't remember when he had last ordered pizza, it probably wouldn't do that much harm. Probably.

He grabbed a plate and chucked the three and a half slices onto it before pulling open his microwave door and placing the plate inside. After a brief moment of hesitation at the prospect of eating off food, he punched in "4 minutes" deciding that if it was good enough for his growling stomach, it was good enough for him.

He'd just have to go shopping later on.

Still humming softly to the music that was blaring around his apartment, he moved towards his room intent on getting dressed in some comfortable clothes. As he walked however, a small flashing light caught his attention and he made a detour to the phone that sat on its hook on the cabinet in his living room.

He rarely got phone calls on the house phone, as he worked with most people who wanted to contact him and they saw him practically every day. Frowning slightly, he pressed the button that would allow him to hear his message.

"_Evening Gajeel," _a familiar voice drawled out, _"I tried calling your mobile, but it appears to be dead. As usual. Anyway, I dropped the girl off, she didn't stop crying for the whole journey-"_

Gajeel snorted at that, he had suspected as much.

"_- but she asked me to tell you thank you. That's all I wanted to say, don't forget you owe me a drink for this favour. Catch you later."_

Gajeel nodded to himself as he resumed his walk to his bedroom, he _did _owe Lily a drink for that favour.

He tried to push the thought out of his mind, but for some reason he felt glad to know that the girl, Levy, had gotten home safely. She had been a wreck last night, and as much as Gajeel liked to pretend otherwise, he _did _in fact have a heart, and if something had happened to her he would have undoubtedly felt extremely guilty.

The ping from the microwave interrupted his reverie and he growled, rushing to his room to get his clothes on.

He didn't want his food to get cold after all.

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Her day was moving rather smoothly. To her delight, he boss had granted her the following week off work, telling her not to worry and just sort out what she could. After their brief and still pleasant conversation she found that her mood had severely improved. Knowing she wouldn't have to worry about work for at least a week was a huge load off her shoulders, and she knew she would need to use all the free time she could get her hands on.

Once that was all sorted she squared her shoulders and moved on to the next task on her list. Her insurance company. Her stomach has plummeted as she prepared herself for that phone call, but as it turned out, she need not have worried too much about it. The phone call with a polite young man from the company had told her that she was covered for fire damage, and as soon as the company got written confirmation from the police that the fire was indeed accidental and not arson, then she would be reimbursed for any damages and loss. The man on the phone assured her they would be in contact with her as soon as they received the information from the police and she thanked him sincerely before hanging up.

Although ideally she would have preferred to have all her insurance claims sorted out that day, she was a reasonable woman and figured there was no point stressing about it when there was simply nothing that could be done until the police filed their own reports.

Once she had put the phone down after that call, she dropped the heavy phone directory to the floor and swivelled around on the chair so she was facing her father's computer. Her heart felt slightly heavy as she waited for it to boot itself up.

Not too long ago she had been done this, except David had been sitting by her side. It was almost ridiculous to think that the two had been planning on purchasing a property together just a few months ago. She scowled as she thought of that day, had he already been cheating on her then? She found that she didn't doubt that he had been. She shook her head and sighed, pondering on David's misdeeds wasn't healthy and if she was ever going to get over him then she needed to stop letting her mind drift to him every five minutes.

The computer flashed blue and the log on screen popped up.

"Whatcha doing?"

She paused, hand hovering over the mouse as she prepared to log into the device, "house hunting," she muttered out, all to aware that Rianne had sidled into the study and had hoisted herself up onto the side of the desk.

"So soon?" Rianne asked with wide eyes, "you hate sharing a room with me that much?"

"Yes," Levy said curtly, though she smiled as she spoke.

"Liar," Rianne scoffed, "you love sharing with me."

Levy hummed half heartedly, not really paying attention to his sister anymore, and instead tried to work out what her budget was for the apartment she would have to purchase.

As luck would have it, because of her previous intentions to purchase a home with David, she did have a fair bit of money saved up, which was a comforting thought. She wasn't sure she would be able to swallow her pride enough to ask her parents for money.

"That's a nice one," Rianne said suddenly, pointing to a large house Levy had just scrolled past on the website she was looking at.

Levy snorted, "too expensive. I need something cheap, affordable and ready to move in immediately."

"You really want to get out of here huh?" Rianne asked softly.

Levy swivelled round on the chair so she could face her sister, hearing the hurt in her voice, "you'll understand once you've moved out, but…coming back here and relying on mummy and daddy again is like a stab to the gut for me. I have to get out and up on my own two feet again."

A comfortable silence ensued for a few moments, as Rianne digested what Levy had just told her. Finally, she nodded before forcibly pushing Levy's chair the right way round so she faced the computer screen once more.

"Well then, I'm gonna help you find somewhere to live if it means that much to you."

"You don't have to Ri," Levy protested, "go have fun with your frie-"

"Nope! The quicker you find a new place to live, the quicker I have my bed to myself again!"

Levy giggled.

"Fine," she sighed, "let's find me a home."

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The "Great Mission to get my sister out of my bed", as Rianne had so cheerfully dubbed it, last until the early evening. Unfortunately, Levy wasn't sure they had actually accomplished anything. Despite having a decent amount of money saved up, she didn't have nearly enough to compete with the rising house prices in the type of neighbourhood she had lived in before.

She had loved her old neighbourhood, it was safe, clean and not too far away from any major transport links that would take her into the city when she needed. However, it was a pretty costly neighbourhood, and the only reason she'd been able to afford her home then was because her parents had kindly chipped in. She hadn't minded her parents helping her out as much back then since she had just been starting out in her job, and there was no way she would have been able to afford it alone, _and _she had made sure to pay back every penny. But this time, she had a steady job and source of income and felt silly relying on her parents.

The two sisters had quickly ruled out the areas that were similar to her previous neighbourhood and decided to downscale a little.

Levy conceded that she didn't mind living in a busier and more noisier neighbourhood if it meant house prices were cheaper, but she would not compromise on safety.

The areas that search brought them to were slightly more run down than her previous area, but nothing she couldn't deal with. They soon found several apartments for sale that were within Levy's price range, and one small flat that was cheap enough that Levy would still have a modest amount of money left in her bank account after purchasing.

Because of that fact, Levy found herself vying for that apartment more than the others. It looked a bit run down, but she was sure it wasn't anything a lick of paint wouldn't fix. She jotted down the number of the estate agents she needed and proceeded to call.

As luck would have it, all four apartments were being sold by the same agency, and the person she spoke to on the phone agreed to meet her on Wednesday morning to view each of the homes.

Levy would have preferred an earlier meeting, but the woman had apologised and said they were swamped, and Wednesday was the earliest she could view all the apartments.

With a reluctant sigh, she had agreed, thanked the woman and hung up.

"Oh c'mon," Rianne said cheerfully, noting that Levy looked rather crestfallen after hanging up the phone, "it _is _a Sunday evening, realistically you can't have expected to get much of a response."

"No…I knew I wouldn't get a viewing today, but Wednesday? That's so far away!" Levy wailed, burying her head in her hands.

Rianne narrowed her eyes, "welp," she huffed, jumping off the desk and stretching her legs, "I'm afraid you'll just have to deal with your _family _for three days longer. Sorry if it causes you any discomfort."

"Don't be like that Ri," Levy said softly, "I just…well this is tough for me ok?"

"And that's what you have your family for, to help you through it. You don't have to do everything alone Levy."

The two sisters stared at each other critically for a moment or two before Levy gave in.

"Jeez," she grumbled, switching the computer off and following her sister out of the room, "again with the you acting older than me. It's creepy."

Rianne just cackled.

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With stealth that would put a ninja to shame, Lucy quietly snuck out of her office and hurried towards the kitchen where she could hear several hushed voices. It was only due to the long period of time she had spent working at the firehouse and how close she had become with the people inside it that she could deduce that Erza's voice was not one of them. Still, that didn't mean Erza wasn't near by and Lucy did _not _want to be caught slacking off by the scarlet haired woman, so she quickened her pace whilst still trying to remain as noiseless as possible.

To her delight she had been right in her assumptions and when she entered the kitchen she found a cheerful Juvia talking to a tired looking Gray and to her surprise, an even more tired looking Cana.

"Cana?" Lucy asked in confusion as she entered the room, being careful to close the door behind her, "what're you doing in today? I thought Mira was supposed to be doing this shift?"

Cana nodded, stifling a yawn as she bobbed her hair, "y-yeah," she yawned, "but I swapped with her. Something about meeting her boyfriend's parents. I wasn't stopped listening after she promised to by me drinks next time we go out, so," she shrugged and shot Lucy an impish smile, "I wasn't really gonna say no was I?"

Lucy chuckled as she strode deeper into the room to lean against the small coffee table, "I keep telling you Cana, that dependency on alcohol you've got is so not healthy."

"Yeah yeah," Cana laughed good naturedly, having heard it all before, "I'm young, let me have my fun."

Lucy nodded in agreement, in their line of work you never knew if you would make it to the next day. It was a harsh truth, but a truth all the same.

"So what're you doing here Lucy," Gray mumbled, "you know Erza's on duty today?"

"Don't I know it," Lucy replied with a roll of the eyes, Erza was such a stickler for the rules it was so unfair being on duty with her around, "but I haven't seen her around in a while, I thought it would be safe for me to come and have a talk with you guys. Where is she by the way?"

"Erza-san noticed there wasn't any milk left in the fridge so she went to get some," Juvia said helpfully, "Juvia thinks she'll be back soon."

"Damn."

Everyone in the kitchen laughed.

"What's so important that you risked your life to tell us anyway?" Gray asked, he had moved to sit down at the table and was now resting his head in his hands. Clearly working a late shift and then the morning shift the following day was taking its toll on the young man.

Lucy faked a look of innocence, "why nothing Gray!" she gasped, pretending to be hurt, "can't I simply venture into the kitchen to talk to my good friends without having an ulterior motive?"

"Not when Erza's on duty you can't."

Cana giggled, "he's got a point there, so…" she moved to sidle up to Lucy and Juvia did the same, "spill."

Lucy rolled her eyes, was she really that easy to read?

"I just had a question about a certain fire fighter we all know and love," she said slowly, "Cana, Gray, you both worked last night right?"

"Yeah."

"Hngg," Gray grunted from his place at the table, his head was now lolling against the wooden surface, and it looked like he was about to fall asleep at any moment.

"And Gajeel," Lucy continued, "how was Gajeel?"

"Same jerk as always!" Cana answered cheerfully.

"Pretty much," Gray muttered in agreement.

Juvia looked at both of friends with reproachful eyes, "Cana , Juvia doesn't think you should call Gajeel a jerk. Gajeel is just…just…different."

That comment elicited another bout of laughter from her friends. Out of everyone at the fire house, Juvia had known Gajeel the longest, both of them having come from a different fire house across the city, and thus was more tolerant and kinder towards him than most. Despite how rude he could be to her, they seemed to have a fairly close relationship and Juvia tended to dislike when people commented on his brashness.

"They don't mean it in a harsh way Juvia," Lucy assured her, "it's more of a friendly observation."

"Juvia does not think it sounds very friendly," she huffed, but decided to let it go.

"Why the fascination with Gajeel?"

Lucy waggled her brows, "it's not a fascination, I was just reading over his case notes from last night, and well…they were _pretty _interesting."

Cana frowned, "nothing interesting happened last night. Did it, Gray?"

Gray replied by snoring faintly.

"Ooook," Cana sighed, "well I'm fairly certain nothing interesting happened last night. There was a fire. We put the fire out. Listened to a few hundred people moan about it. Voila, nothing interesting."

"Nothing interesting you perhaps, but did you see who Gajeel was talking to?"

Cana shrugged, "some girl? I think it was her apartment that the fire originated in, what was that nickname he gave her?"

"Lasagne girl!" Juvia put in helpfully, Gray had been telling her about it before their shift had started, "apparently she fell asleep cooking lasagne and well…you saw the results."

"Pssh," Cana snorted, "who burns lasagne?"

"She did."

"I can see that Juvia."

"But you asked wh-"

"One of these days I will explain rhetorical questions to you. Maybe."

Juvia's brows furrowed in confusion, but she nodded silently, a lot of people seemed to say that to her.

"_Anyway_," Lucy butt in, getting increasingly worried that Erza would arrive soon and send her back to solitude, "I was reading over the report and that wasn't the only nickname is christened the poor girl with. _Lasagne Girl, Fairy, Pixy, Crybaby_…I could go on and on, but that's not the interesting part. Here!" she stuck out the folder she had been holding under her arm and thrust it in Juvia and Cana's faces.

Gray snored a little louder this time.

"What?"

"It's the case file, read it. Just flip it open and read!"

Eyeing Lucy up as if she had possibly gone insane, which in all honesty was a pretty plausible idea, Juvia and Cana opened up the case file and dutifully read the notes.

Lucy watched in triumph as slowly their eyes began to widen in disbelief.

"No," Cana said once they had gotten through most of the file, "no."

"Juvia…" Juvia sighed, "Juvia finds it difficult to believe Gajeel wrote this."

"No way in _hell _did Gajeel write this!" Cana exclaimed, "you see this? This right here is correct spelling and grammar, I didn't even know Gajeel knew what grammar was!"

Lucy giggled at Cana's exaggeration to Gajeel's normally very short and scruffily presented reports he usually handed in.

"No, I'm serious Lucy," Cana said, "this report is like Erza level. What the hell got into him last night?"

"I'm fairly certain it has something to do with that girl, the one he called lasagne girl? She must've caught his attention somehow," Lucy replied rationally.

Cana stared at her dubiously, whilst Juvia was still eyeing up the report, still not believing what she saw.

"Just think about it," Lucy said quickly, noting that Cana didn't think her reasoning was very sound, "Gajeel only ever puts effort into things that interest him personally, even if he doesn't know he's doing it. For him to actually write a report that won't get him in trouble, shows he's seriously interested in her, for some reason."

"I don't think I've ever seen Gajeel interested in a girl," Cana murmured, "what about you Juvia, you've known him for longest?"

Juvia paused, contemplating her answer before shaking her head, "Juvia does not think she's ever known Gajeel to have a girlfriend."

Lucy nodded wisely, she wasn't sure what it was but something about the young woman from last night had sparked Gajeel's attention, even if he wasn't aware of it himself yet.

She opened her mouth to voice her opinion, but another voice spoke out.

A voice nobody particularly wanted to hear.

"Lucy," said the voice.

Lucy gulped.

Cana gulped.

Juvia gulped.

Gray snored.

"this is not your desk, is it?"

Lucy shook her head.

"Maybe you should get to your desk?"

"Aye sir!" Lucy yelped, dashing past Erza to run back down the corridor to her office. If there was one thing Erza hated, it was people slacking off when they were supposed to be working.

"Cana, Juvia, shouldn't at least one of you be manning the emergency phone?"

Juvia nodded sheepishly before darting off, purposely making her way past the table to nudge Gray into hopefully waking up.

Unfortunately her plan didn't work, and all it did was allude Erza to the fact that Gray was fast asleep.

Erza's eye twitched and Cana took that as a sign to high tail it out of there.

_Sorry Gray, every man for himself,_ Cana mumbled to herself as she snuck out of the back entrance to the kitchen.

Gray's yelps of surprise could be heard from around the block.

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* * *

><p><strong>AN: ***sheepishly updates and hopes you don't hate me*

I am so sorry for this fics lateness in updates, so sorry. A combination of being so damn busy and lack of muse meant I neglected this. But it's summer now (even though its been raining non stop ~_~) and my muse has returned so I'm going to try and update much more regularly now!

Next chapter will probably have some interaction from Levy and Gajeel! (wink wink nudge nudge)

review pls~


	5. Chapter 5

Smokin' Hot

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?", and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."

**5**; Chump

She was close to tears, she really was. Her house hunting day had not gone to plan at all. She had expected to visit the first apartment a fall in love immediately. The pictures had looked wonderful after all.

Unfortunately, reality did not turn out like her daydreams.

She arrived at the first apartment ten minutes earlier than the time the estate agent had stated earlier on, so she could check out the neighbourhood a little.

It was a mildly busy one, but she figured she'd get used to the amount of cars zooming about all the time. She noted happily that their seemed to be some sort of shopping complex not far from the apartment building which was a plus. At her previous apartment she had to take a bus to get her groceries, knowing it would be within walking distance of this new apartment made her happy.

She gave it a mental tick in her mind.

The area was fairly clean as well.

Her estate agent, a blonde haired man who introduced himself as Daryl, came shortly after and took her into the apartment block.

Her hopes of falling in love with the place dwindled away with each passing step.

The wallpaper was peeling, children had messily scrawled nicknames over it, the carpet was uprooted, a window was smashed…and this was all before he'd even unlocked the door to the apartment that would be hers.

The apartment had been small, dark and poorly furnished. Daryl had tried to turn on a light and in seconds the apartment lost all electricity.

Levy quickly crossed apartment number one of her potential list and suggested they quickly move to apartment two.

Apartment two was a lost cause almost straight away.

The area was run down to the point that Levy wondered how anyone could even live there at all. It looked like a health hazard just inhaling the contaminated air. The apartment was much like the first apartment, but even worse - if that were possible.

Apartment three was promising. The area was decent and the apartment seemed pleasant. It was clean, well decorated and if she thought hard enough Levy decided she could like living there.

Until Daryl dropped the "little" bombshell that the owners of the apartment had decided to up the price.

To something that was way out of Levy's league.

So, she reluctantly said goodbye to apartment three and crossed her fingers hoping apartment number four would be the one.

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Gajeel stretched, leaning backwards on his chair, his eyes darting towards the clock that hung above the door frame. He quickly estimated that he had precisely eight hours left of work, and the thought made him want to cry. You know, if he ever cried, which he totally did not.

He supposed there was no point moaning about it though, he wasn't on a late shift which was something to celebrate.

"Yo Juvia," he called, crunching up a piece of paper (which was probably fairly important and needed to be filed) and chucking it at the blue haired woman's turned head.

"Don't throw things Gajeel," she reprimanded fondly, whirling around in her seat to face her long time comrade, "can Juvia help you with anything?"

"Me and Lily were gonna go out for drinks tonight, wanna come?"

A small smile spread across her features, "that'll be lovely! Fairy Tail?"

Gajeel snorted before nodding, "where the hell else do we go?"

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Levy wrinkled her nose as the distinct stench of vomit hit her. Whipping her head around frantically she quickly sought out the culprit.

A puddle of lumpy puke was splattered across the curb of the pavement, as if the poor soul vomiting up their guts had desperately aimed for the gutter but had missed for some reason.

The reason for their complete lack of aim suddenly became very clear to Levy as she glanced up and saw a dingy little bar just a few metres away from the vomit.

"_Far…Til…" _she mumbled, reading the old sign that hung above the door of the bar. The words were written in what had probably once been large fancy red letters, but with time had aged to looking rough and haphazardly scrawled.

Shaking her head, she quickly caught up with her estate agent, hoping that they'd get out of the neighbourhood and to the final apartment they had to view soon.

The whole area seemed deserted and fairly run down, it made her feel ill at ease. Still, she reasoned it was nowhere near as bad as the second apartments area.

"Here we are!"

Levy froze.

"Ex-excuse me?"

"I said, here we are. The final apartment of the day," he grinned at her excitedly, "I think you'll like this one."

Without waiting for her response, which would have most definitely been something along the lines of "I'm sure as hell I won't", he motioned for her to follow him inside, and then proceeded to enter the dingy little bar Levy had been eyeing up sceptically not even thirty seconds prior.

Whimpering, Levy reluctantly followed Daryl, wrapping her coat and bag closer to her body as she went.

"I'm sorry," Levy began as she caught up with him, "but I don't understand what we're doing in a bar. I…I just want to see the apartment please."

"We're getting to it," Daryl assured her, "unfortunately the back entrance to the apartment has been blocked for quite some time now, so the only way to enter is to go through the bar. Not to worry though, as you can tell, it's quite a docile bar, don't you think?"

Levy had to agree with that, the bar was more or less deserted.

A small elderly man dressed in a bright orange suit was settled cross legged atop the bar shelf, but he looked to be fast asleep. Two middle aged looking men sat in a corner, each nursing a glass of what she had to assume was some sickly alcoholic substance. One other person was in the bar, but they were slumped across a table with several empty bottles and glasses strewn across the table and the floor surrounding them. Levy could just about make out a nest of messy brown hair from the poor young woman who seemed to have drunken herself into an unconscious state.

"I guess you're right," she admitted, "but is it always like this?"

Daryl smiled, "of course. Would I lie to you?"

Levy considered saying, "I don't know, I've only known you for a few hours so yes, I'd say you were pretty capable of lying to me," but opted on giving the man a small smile.

"I guess it's not too bad," she said quietly, "I just don't like the idea of living over a bar though."

"Now, now," Daryl said airily, "I don't want you making any decisions before you've seen the actual apartment. Come on now."

Levy glanced nervously at the old man as she and Daryl made their way through a door that said NO ENTRY, but either the old man really was fast asleep, or he simply didn't care.

Or he was dead.

But she hoped it was one of the first two.

Once they'd made their way through the door, Levy found herself in a narrow, poorly lit, corridor with a flight of stairs at the very end. Daryl made his way to the stairs and began climbing.

"It smells funny down here," Levy muttered as she followed him, wrinkling her nose as the unfamiliar stench of alcohol reached her.

"I'm pretty sure they store a lot of the alcohol in one of those rooms downstairs," Daryl said with disinterest, "not to worry though, your apartments far away from the rooms. The bar shouldn't bother you at all."

Levy felt her heart sinking lower and lower with each and every step. She had started the day off optimistically, hoping that one of the first three apartments she had seen would be The One. She had hoped that she'd fall in love instantly. But no such luck, all three apartments had been revolting, and the only one that she had thought was even mildly salvageable was situated far too close to David's own apartment for her to be comfortable. It seemed like a silly reason but she just knew that she'd bump into him at the store, or perhaps see him driving along the road with a new girl in the passenger seat of his car, and she knew couldn't handle that.

And this last apartment wasn't proving to be any better.

Daryl must have been insane to truly believe that she'd be comfortable living above a bar. Albeit a relatively quiet and derelict bar, but a bar all the say. But, she knew he wouldn't listen to her complaints unless she at least looked around the sure to be vile room, so she kept her worries silent, squared her shoulders and followed the estate agent up the stairs.

To her relief, the rather strong smell of alcohol did lessen the higher they got. She could smell it only very vaguely, but she reasoned it was nothing that would bother her too much should she choose to purchase the apartment. Which was totally wasn't going to do, but it always helped to look at things positively.

Once they got onto the landing Levy noticed there were three doors, "are there other tenants?"

Daryl shook his head, "no. Not that I know of anyway. I think they're just spare rooms used for storing things. They're not used regularly in any case, so you won't have any problem with noisy neighbours or anything."

Levy hummed in response.

"Here we go!" Daryl said triumphantly, shoving the key in the door at the very end of the corridor and swinging it open, "apartment number four!"

He strolled in whistling lightly and Levy followed.

What she saw was a complete opposite to what she had been expecting.

She had been anticipating a dingy, poorly lit, small and dark apartment. Maybe with some damp and mould lining the walls, and shabby poorly kept furniture shoved haphazardly about the place.

Instead she was met with a large, brightly lit living room with one large red sofa placed against the far wall, and a small blue armchair settled next to the fireplace. A red rug and a wooden coffee table was in the middle of the room and an unused bookshelf was in another corner.

Immediately she pictured herself settled on the blue armchair with a warm blanket wrapped around her, a book in her hand and the fire roaring to keep her warm.

Daryl laughed, "I can see you weren't expecting this."

"Not at all," she admitted sheepishly, stepping further into the apartment with a small smile on her face.

"Come, let me show you the other rooms."

He showed her the kitchen next. It was a quite small but quaint, with a tiny two person dining table in the middle.

"As you can see, the apartment is fully furnished," Daryl began as they walked around, "so you won't need to buy any furniture or appliances."

Levy nodded feeling rather pleased. All the other places had been mostly bare and she had to admit she was pretty worried that her rather small budget wouldn't stretch to buying all the furniture and appliances she would need to live comfortably.

He showed her the bathroom next, it was fully equipped with both a bath and shower as well at the toilet and looked to be remarkably clean. A great improvement from the second apartment they visited.

There were two bedrooms in the apartment, one was a small box room with only a single bed and wardrobe in it. It was painted a nice sky blue and looked quite homely.

The larger master bedroom took her breath away. It was at the very back of the building and had a lovely view of the fields that were situated behind the building.

"I didn't even realise they were here," she admitted.

A large double bed was pushed against a wall, and a large wooden wardrobe and matching chest of drawers were also pushed against another wall.

A small patterned rug sat on the floor below the foot of the bed.

"So, how do you like it?"

"I love it," the answer fell from her lips before she even had the chance to consider the question.

Daryl's lips stretched into a large catlike grin.

He began to say something, possibly something about contracts and the like, but she wasn't listening. She was too busy envisioning herself moseying around the apartment. Sure, it wasn't in an ideal location, but the bar _was _pretty quiet and the apartment was to die for, and at such an affordable price.

She'd be making the mistake of her life not to get it.

"I'll take it!" she said firmly.

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.

.

As she settled herself onto the nice comfortable blue armchair with one of her favourite books resting on the armrest, and blanket wrapped around her waist and a cup of tea on small table by her side, Levy let out a content sigh.

After a hectic few days, Levy was pleased to say that she felt settled.

Her parents thought she had rushed into buying the apartment and were wary about her living above a bar, but after she had finished signing contracts with Daryl she had brought them over and they were impressed.

Her father still didn't like the idea of her living above the bar, but after Levy had given him the rundown on just how horrendous the other three apartments were, he had been forced to admit that this was the best option.

Due to the fire that had destroyed most of her belongings, and the fact that the safety inspector had yet to deem her apartment block safe enough for her to retrieve the few items that hadn't been burnt to pieces, moving in hadn't taken much effort on her half.

Her parents kindly donated a few blankets, pillows, kitchen gear, and a few good books, just to tide her over until she was able to restock her apartment with her own things.

It wasn't quite home yet, but she figured that would change in the coming weeks.

As it stood, she was fairly happy sitting in her living room with a good book by her side just itching to be read.

_The only thing that could make this better would be David_, she thought sadly. The pair had often spent quiet evenings indoors, simply enjoying each other's company like this and she had to admit she missed it.

He had cheated on her and quite frankly didn't deserve her (Rianne had said firmly to her), but he was a big part of her life for the last year of her life, so she figured it would take quite some time to get used to him not being there.

_But reading and getting on with my life will definitely help! _She gave herself a little pep talk in her mind before opening her book, resolving to get lost in Kemu Zaleon's latest fictional world before bed.

However, it seemed like someone else had other plans for her.

It started off slowly.

The sound of a quiet bass coming from beneath her.

The sound of a door being opened and closed repeatedly.

The sound of laughter.

And then, the bass became louder and she could hear the distinct sound of loud music being blared through speakers.

The door stopped being opened and closed and started instead to be thrown roughly open and then slammed shut.

The laughter got louder and so did the sound of conversation.

Levy's eye twitched and tried to concentrate on her book. There was simply no way that the noise she was hearing was coming from the quiet bar beneath her.

Simply no way at all.

Nope.

No.

Way.

Right?

The sound of someone drunkenly shrieking along to the music was the final straw. She stormed down the flight of stairs, a fury on her face that was rarely seen by anyone. What had happened to Daryl's promises of a nice quiet bar? Where the hell was all this raucous music and laughter coming from. Surely there had to be some sort of mistake. Maybe they were watching the television loudly.

Very loudly.

She threw open the door that led into the bar and gasped.

It was full.

Packed to the brim of loud, drunken patrons.

She whimpered as a tall man with a strange hairdo stumbled past her before making it precisely two steps before collapsing in a drunken heap on the floor.

"Wha…what is this?!" she cried loudly, feeling extremely vulnerable standing amidst the group of drunks wrapped in solely a thin blanket.

Out of the corner of her eye she spotted the elderly man she had seen sitting atop the bar earlier on when visiting with Daryl and moved towards him. The man was still sitting on top of the bar, though this time she could see he was wide awake. He was smiling brightly and seemed to be engaging in conversation with a buxom girl with short violet hair behind the bar.

Levy squared her shoulders before making her way through the thronging crowd, determined to reach the old man, who she assumed was the owner of the bar, and give him a firm piece of her mind.

It wasn't that difficult making her way through the crowd of patrons, whilst none of them really paid her any attention, they all seemed to automatically move out the way to give her an easy pathway towards the elderly man.

Well, mostly everyone moved out of the way.

"Excuse me!" Levy huffed, recoiling backwards after accidentally bumping into a thick back, clad in a dark grey hoodie.

The figure was a great deal taller than her, and judging by the width of the back she was glaring at, belonged to a fairly in shape man, despite the cascading long black hair.

"I said excuse me!" she said again, prodding the man, as it became clear to her that he either hadn't heard her earlier request or was doing his best to ignore her.

Her prodding seemed to work, for she her the distinct sound of a low sigh before the man turned around.

"You can't walk around?" the man growled, as he turned to face the minor annoyance.

"No! No I can n-" Levy trailed off, her eyes widening as she realised just who exactly she was talking to.

Dark brown, almost black, eyes glinted mischievously as Gajeel Redfox finally recognised just who his minor annoyance was.

"Oh God," Levy muttered.

"Crybaby!" Gajeel sniggered, "nice blanket."

Levy responded by tugging the blanket further around her body with a sniff.

"Excuse me," she said again through gritted teeth, wondering just what was it about Gajeel that brought out the worst in her.

"Where're you going?" he asked, turning around properly so he faced her fully, "for that matter, what're you doing here. You don't seem like the type to come to a place like this."

"Not that it's any of your business," she sniffed, "but I live here and would like to complain to th-"

Gajeel's raucous laughter interrupted her, and she narrowed her eyes.

"What's so funny?"

He didn't answer straight away, he was too busy laughing at her misfortune.

"I said what's so funny?!"

"You sure have bad luck don't you?"

If the past week or so of her life was any indication of her life, then she was inclined to agree that she did have pretty bad luck, but she opted not to reply to his question and instead responded by fixing him an icy glare.

"That estate agent guy, Darren or whatever," Gajeel began.

"Daryl," Levy mumbled, knowing that Gajeel wasn't really listening.

"Yeah him, that guy's been trying to find some poor chump to sell that place to for the last few years. Nobodies been stupid enough to buy it, until now I guess."

Levy froze, "poor…chump?"

Gajeel nodded, looking positively ecstatic at her discomfort, "yeah, this bars got a pretty bad reputation for noise you know? Only an idiot would willingly move in."

Her eyes began to well with unshed tears and she quickly whirled around, determined not to cry in front of the uncaring lump of flesh most people knew as Gajeel.

"Don't you start crying now," he muttered, watching her curiously.

"I _wasn't_," she lied, still facing the opposite direction, "I just…just had enough of looking at you."

Gajeel scoffed but said nothing, deciding instead to sip from his glass.

"Now," she said suddenly, turning back around, her eyes still glistening slightly, "if you'll excuse me like I asked, I have to register a complaint with the owner of this establishment!"

And with that she strode past Gajeel and continued on her merry way to the elderly man who was _still _sitting on top of the bar, (did he not do anything else with his day?).

Gajeel watched her inch her way closer towards Makarov, an evil grin growing on his face.

Life was about to get that little bit more interesting.

* * *

><p>.<p>

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**A/N: **BLEEHHHH I'm just going to stop saying when I'll update because this is becoming far too sporadic for my liking.

I'm genuinely sorry it's taken me so long to update, I started writing this chapter almost as soon as I finished the other one I just couldn't finish it :c

Forgive me please! ORZ

Please review if that's not too much trouble and I promise I'll try my hardest to update this quicker than last time!

xoxo


	6. Chapter 6

Smokin' Hot

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?", and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."

6; Assumptions

He didn't particularly want to admit it, but she had most definitely piqued his interest.

He wasn't even sure what it was about her that interested him so much. By all standards, she was incredibly below average.

Below average height.

Below average breast size.

And judging by the situations she seemed to get herself into, below average luck.

But, if he was completely honest with himself, he found her rather fascinating.

Which was why he found himself stood, leant against the wall, with his bottle firmly grasped in his hand watching her like a hawk as she strode across the packed bar and did her best to gain Makarov's attention.

She looked so out of place in the rowdy bar with her silly little blanket wrapped tightly around her body, as if she thought it would protect her from the "evil drunkards". He snorted to himself, deciding that that was definitely what she was thinking.

He wondered how old she was as he watched her hoist herself up onto the barstool closest to Makarov and engage the elderly man in conversation. If he had passed her in the street he figured he would have dismissed her as a teen. With her small height, slight frame and innocent face she really didn't look that much older than 18. However, he knew she had owned an apartment and he was sure she had mentioned something about a job that night so he theorised she had to be in her early to mid twenties.

"What are you looking at?" Juvia asked curiously.

Jumping slightly at the sudden voice, Gajeel whirled around to find Juvia staring at him suspiciously, "God dammit Juvia, what the hell have I told you about sneaking up on me like that?"

"Juvia wasn't sneaking," she said with a pout, looking highly offended, "Juvia has been standing here for at least five minutes trying to get your attention. Hmph!" she huffed.

Gajeel's cheeks coloured as he shook his head, deciding that she had to be exaggerating on the whole, "I've been standing here for five minutes" thing.

"So what are you looking at?" she pressed, peering over his shoulder, seemingly determined to find whatever it was that had managed to capture her friends attention so much.

"Nothing, nothing!" he said gruffly, pushing her backwards so Makarov and Levy were no longer in their line of sight, "you seen Lily?" he asked, changing the topic quickly.

Juvia narrowed her eyes, knowing immediately that he was trying to change the topic. Still, she decided not to push it. Gajeel wasn't very good at hiding what interested him and she was sure he'd slip up in a short while.

"Not yet," she shook her head, "he said he might be late though. Oh look, Lucy!"

Gajeel grunted and took a swig from his bottle as the blonde receptionist waved to Juvia and began worming her way through the crowd to meet them.

As the two women hugged and gossiped like they hadn't both been in the same building not even two hours ago, Gajeel allowed his attention to drift back to the blue haired midget by the bar.

He was rather surprised to see that instead of slamming her head repeatedly on the countertop like she had been doing not too long ago, she was now sitting upright and was nursing a glass of what he assumed was an alcoholic substance. She even had a small smile on her face as she continued to speak to Makarov.

"Be back in a sec," he grunted to the two gossiping females. Without even waiting for their response he dropped his bottle on the table nearest them and began pushing his way through the crowd to make his way to the bar.

.

.

.

Levy smiled as she accepted the glass from the purple haired bar assistant.

"Thanks," she murmured, eyeing the glass. It was a light pink substance and she lifted it up and sniffed it gingerly. It smelt sweet.

"That's a Woo Woo," the barmaid said with a smile, "it's pretty light, you don't look like a hardcore drinker," she laughed before shuffling down towards the other end of the bar where other patrons were calling desperately for her attention.

"Go on," Makarov said, watching her with interest, "Kinana's right, it's not very strong at all."

Hesitantly, Levy brought the glass up to her lips and took a sip. It warmed her throat as she swallowed and she found herself enjoying the sweet aftertaste it left in her mouth. She wasn't a very seasoned drinker, the most she had ever consumed was the bottle of wine that had forced her into a drunken slumber that fateful night over a week ago.

"It's nice!" Levy affirmed with a smile. She felt strangely comfortable around Makarov, he was an extremely likeable man. She had marched towards him, intent on berating him for the noise and demand he do something about it, but after he had introduced himself to her somehow she had been cajoled into enjoying a drink with him first.

Whilst she sipped the Woo Woo Kinana had given her, Makarov gulped something out of a medium sized jug. She could tell he was most definitely used to drinking.

"So," Makarov said suddenly, "you're our new tenant?"

Levy frowned, "I…well, I guess you could say that."

"You don't seem too happy about the arrangement, is the apartment not up to your standards?"

She shook her head firmly, the apartment was definitely _not _the problem here, "it's the bar. I was led to believe that this was an empty bar. When we visited early this afternoon it looked like a ghost town!"

Makarov chuckled, "of course, who comes to a bar during the day? Well except Cana on her days off."

Levy sighed, yes he was right, but… "Daryl told me it was an empty bar _all _the time. I can see he lied to me now, and I'll deal with that issue tomorrow but really…is there nothing you can do about this noise?"

Almost as if to reiterate just how noisy it was in the bar, somebody decided to turn the music up.

Makarov shot her an apologetic look but shook his head, "this is a business my dear, and as much as you don't want to hear it, the bar and all the noise that comes with it, is here to stay."

She had been expecting as much.

"I suggest you talk to your landlord tomorrow and maybe see if you can get out of your contract if it bothers you that much?"

Levy nodded, but knew that would secretly do no good. Oh yes, she would be speaking to Daryl tomorrow and give him a piece of her mind, but getting out of the contract was impossible. The fees she would have to pay for breaking their contract far too early would be phenomenal, and she already knew how difficult it was to find an affordable home.

Plus, she loved the apartment, she just wished her neighbours were a little quieter.

In hindsight, she realised that this had probably been Daryl's evil plan. If she bought the apartment; he won. If the noise was too much for her and she broke the contract; he still won.

Sighing in defeat, Levy picked up her glass and brought it to her mouth, intending on gulping the substance down before returning to her room.

"Oi."

Turning towards the deep voice that had called out to her, she forgot to bring her glass back down and ended up continuing to tilt it towards her mouth. Of course, as she had turned her head, the glass missed her mouth completely and she ended up spilling the drink down the front of her blanket.

She blinked in disbelief as she watch the sticky liquid trail down her blanket, leaving a large pink snake like mark that was sure to stain.

"Perfect, just perfect."

The person who had roughly greeted her began sniggering and she glared at the familiar face.

"Why is it you always pop up when I'm making a fool of myself?" she sighed in exasperation at Gajeel.

Gajeel shrugged, "dunno. Makes good entertainment though."

"I'm glad to have made your evening," she replied dryly.

Makarov watched the two interact with raised eyebrows. He had never seen Gajeel react so warmly to a stranger before.

"You two know each other?" he asked with interest.

Gajeel smirked, "yeah, Shorty burned her apartment down and I saved her."

Levy twitched at the nickname but otherwise ignored it, "and beside that one moment of heroism, Gajeel has proved to be nothing but an insufferable jerk."

Makarov chortled, he had certainly heard that before.

"Oi, I'm not that bad."

"You are."

She had to bite back a giggle as Makarov decided to shine in on their conversation.

"Nobody was talking to you old man," Gajeel growled out, though Levy could sense and underlying affection with his words.

Makarov merely hummed in response before moving down towards the other end of the bar to converse with a middle aged looking man. As Makarov shuffled away, Kinana returned to where Levy and Gajeel sat with a large pitcher in her hand.

"Hey Gajeel," she said as she wordlessly filled up Levy's glass.

Gajeel grunted in greeting.

"Oh! Oh no, I didn't want any more," Levy stammered as she watched the pink liquid fill her glass.

Kinana waved an airy hand, "no problem, I made a pitcher and nobody else is gonna drink it before it gets soft, you may as well finish it."

She placed the half empty pitcher on the bar top and then quickly dashed off to serve a brunette who was waving wildly. Levy thought the brunette looked a little familiar but she couldn't quite place her face.

"Pass it," Gajeel growled out suddenly.

"Pass you what?"

He pointed roughly at the pitcher.

"Why?"

"To drink it, why else?" he asked with raised eyebrows, like Levy had just asked the most ridiculous question in the universe.

In response, she jutted her chin upwards and stared up at him defiantly, "this, Gajeel, is my drink. Even if I wanted to give you any, that's no way to ask."

His lips curved into an amused smirk.

_This _was what fascinated him most about Levy. She wasn't afraid to talk back to him. Aside from the few women at the fire house, he had yet to meet anyone who was quite happy to snap right back at him and give him a piece of her mind. It was rather sadistic in a way, but he couldn't deny that it did intrigue him.

"You're not gonna finish it," he said bluntly, lips still curved upwards in a taunting grin.

Levy's eyes flashed as she, without hesitation, picked up her glass and downed the light pink beverage.

"Don't underestimate me," she huffed once it was finished, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand quickly.

"You don't seem to be a heavy drinker," Gajeel noted as he watched her slowly pour some more drink into her glass. Levy snorted, something he wasn't sure she was even aware of.

"I'm not. The last time and _only _time I drank heavily, I wound up burning down my home."

She picked up her glass and sipped it slowly this time. Kinana was right, the drink was very weak but Levy was all too aware that she had been consuming it very quickly and she was fairly certain she wasn't imagining the light throbbing she felt in her head. Sensing Gajeel was still watching her curiously, she frowned at him.

He was a strange one.

Whilst he seemed to take pleasure out of taunting her, she found that she didn't actually dislike him. Not really anyway. He irked her, yes. But that didn't warrant dislike in her books.

He was different.

And, she had to admit, she liked the small fire she felt building up in her stomach whenever she spoke with him. He was like a punching bag and she was free to hurl all the pent up rage and emotion she felt right at him without worrying if it would offend him.

"What?" he asked, finally noticing that she was frowning at him, "there something on my face?"

She giggled as she watched him swat his face for some imaginary substance.

"I was just thinking," she replied taking another sip from her glass, "that's all."

Gajeel opened up his mouth to speak, but was cut across as another blue haired woman leaned in between the two.

"Gajeel!" Juvia reprimanded with a frown, "Juvia has been looking for you for ages! Lily is waiting for you! Really Gajeel, it's rude to invite people places and then abandon them," she huffed, arms crossed over her chest.

"It's also rude to interrupt someone's conversation," Gajeel bit back, looking equally peeved off with Juvia.

Juvia hummed in confusion for a second or two before turning around to face a rather amused looking Levy. Once Juvia finally noticed her, Levy waved good naturedly, wondering what the relationship between the two was.

Prior to today, if you had asked her, Levy would have straight away said that Gajeel was most definitely single. She simply couldn't imagine the tactless fireman having a girlfriend in his life. Though as she watched him interact with the blue haired woman, who for some strange reason referred to herself in the third person, she couldn't help but wonder if she had been wrong.

It was a bit odd, but perhaps this Juvia was his girlfriend. Or, at the very least, his date for the night.

Her smile fell from her lips as she considered the option that Gajeel, of all people, had managed to secure a relationship, whilst she was still nursing the pain from being callously dumped.

And cheated on.

"Oh, Juvia did not realise Gajeel was speaking to anyone," Juvia said honestly, blushing lightly as she finally realised she had indeed interrupted a conversation, "Juvia Loxar."

"Levy McGarden," she replied quietly, sticking her own hand out and gingerly shaking Juvia's hand.

Juvia frowned, the name sounded oddly familiar.

"Oh, are yo-"

She was interrupted by Levy quickly hopping off of the bar stool, "sorry Juvia, Gajeel, but I really have to go. It was nice to meet you, goodnight!"

And with that, she fled.

Gajeel watched in confusion as she bobbed and weaved through the, now thinning, crowd before disappearing through the door just behind the bar.

"Did…did Juvia do something wrong?" Juvia asked, a look of equal confusion etched onto her face.

Gajeel said nothing, still staring in confusion at the closed door Levy had ran through.

At first he had thought he had been imagining it, but now he was sure. Her whole demeanour changed shortly after Juvia had arrived.

"Tch," he huffed, hopping off of his own stool, "women, I'll never understand you lot. C'mon Juvia, let's go see Lil'."

The pair made their way back to the table they had originally been sat at. Lucy had migrated off some place else, probably to try and find her boyfriend before he got himself into any trouble, so the only person seated there now was a tall dark man.

"Yo," Gajeel greeted his long time friend with a friendly fist bump.

"You took your time," Lily said with a glare, returning the fist bump, "I was about to leave."

"Yeah yeah," Gajeel replied waving an airy hand as both he and Juvia slid into seats, "I'm here now aint I."

Lily rolled his eyes, he was far too used to Gajeel's antisocial behaviour to be bothered by it really. They went _way _back you see, and Gajeel was his most trusted and loyal friend. However, he did wish that he would at least try to be more polite.

Would it really kill him?

"What took you so long anyway?" he asked, picking up his bottle and taking a large gulp.

"He was talking to a girl," Juvia replied cheekily, pointedly ignoring the heated glare Gajeel was sending her way. This was her payback for him suddenly abandoning her earlier.

Lily's eyebrows raised at Juvia's sudden statement.

The only girls Gajeel spoke to were Kinana who worked behind the bar, and the women who worked in the firehouse. And, secretly, Lily was sure the only he spoke to them was because he didn't even properly recognise that they were indeed women and not just men with balloons on their chests.

"Yeah, and what of it?" Gajeel snarled, deciding to take the heads on approach, as opposed to his usual favourite: "Deny everything until they shut the hell up."

"And who would this mystery woman who has captured your oh so allusive attention be?" Lily asked with great interest.

Juvia laughed as Gajeel's face reddened almost instantaneously.

"Nobody's 'captured my attention'," Gajeel grunted out at exactly the same time Juvia decided to sing out,

"Miss Levy McGarden!"

"Ah," Lily said, nodding knowingly. _That _was definitely a familiar name.

"Don't ah me like that you bastard!"

"Ah hmm," Lily hummed, deliberately provoking Gajeel, "would this be the same Miss McGarden who you asked me to drive home last week?"

"And what if it is?"

"Would this be the same Miss McGarden you nicknamed _Lasagne Girl_?" Juvia put it, sniggering as Gajeel began to visibly twitch.

"How the hell did you know that?"

Juvia looked away pointedly, deciding that she didn't want to reveal her sources just yet.

"Nicknames already Gajeel, my my you _are _moving fast aren't you?"

"Watch it Lil'," Gajeel growled.

"And where is the poor woman," Lily asked, ignoring Gajeel's (probably) empty threat, "or did you scare her away already?"

"Not me, her," Gajeel nodded towards Juvia who at least had the decency to look sheepish.

"A-ah, Juvia does not know what she did wrong," she said quietly, "but Juvia apologises for scaring her away!"

And she did feel rather bad about that. Until she unintentionally, but rudely, interrupted, Gajeel had finally been conversing with a woman. A woman he was seemingly interested in - though she doubted he would ever admit it to them - and she had ruined that.

"Don't worry 'bout it," Gajeel sighed, sensing the metaphorical rain cloud beginning to form over Juvia's head. Whenever she felt bad about something, she really took it to heart and her depressing mood was somewhat contagious, "and you," he rounded on Lily, "let it the fuck go."

Lily shrugged, but nodded before taking another sip from his bottle.

Gajeel was an idiot if he thought Lily was going to really let it go.

.

.

.

She buried herself underneath her quilt and piled every pillow she had in her apartment on top of her head. In the end, she could still hear the low thudding of the bass coming from the bar downstairs, but it was infinitely more quieter and she knew she could fall asleep like that.

She sniffled lightly and quickly wiped away a single tear.

Seeing Gajeel with his girlfriend had unlocked the padlock on her heart that was doing its best to keep her heart from crumbling into tiny pieces.

Now she was all alone in her apartment, she didn't need to hide her emotions anymore. Once she realised that, the floodgates opened and she couldn't stop herself from crying.

Images of David's smirking face kept swimming towards the forefront of her mind, along with a faceless, buxom blonde who was latched onto his arm sneering snobbily at the snivelling Levy.

Levy shook her head wildly, trying her best to push the image out of her mind.

It wasn't fair.

He had broken up with her.

Cheated on her.

Embarrassed her.

And she still couldn't get him out of her mind. Why? Was she really that weak?

She just wanted to be happy, was that too much to ask?

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**A/N: **TA-DAAAAAAA a magical update! I don't have anything to say really, I tried to update faster this time, did you notice? A tinyyyy bit shorter than usual, I'm sorry, but I hope you enjoy it!

Please review xoxoxo


	7. Chapter 7

Smokin' Hot

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?", and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."

**7; **Coincidence

She awoke the next morning to find her throat sore and her face stiff with dried tears. Grumbling as she did her best to escape from the cocoon of blankets she had buried herself in, she made a mental note to not fall asleep crying again.

It felt like absolute crap the next morning after all.

She dragged herself into her small bathroom and stared critically at herself in the mirror. What she saw made her wince and she quickly ran the cold tap before splashing the water over her face.

Her hair was knotted and messy, her eyes bloodshot, her cheeks puffy, and her nose snotty.

_Yuck_, she grimaced to herself as she turned off the tap and turned towards the comfortably sized bathtub that lay against the wall.

The thought of relaxing in a warm bubble bath brought a smile to her lips. Aside from her mother making her favourite dessert, she had always found that lying in a warm bath was a wonderful way of causing your worries to ebb away.

Twenty minutes later and she was doing just that.

She had stolen some of Rianne's bath soaps before she left, knowing she wouldn't be able to go grocery shopping for a day or two, and now her bathroom smelt of lavender.

It didn't smell unpleasant, but it was a stark contrast to Levy's usual choice of strawberry blossom. As she gently began washing her skin, she decided she would spend the day exploring her new neighbourhood before finding a supermarket and doing some grocery shopping.

Her parents had been kind enough to give her the essentials to tide her over for a few days, but Levy knew she wasn't really going to be satisfied gnawing on toast for breakfast, lunch _and _dinner.

As she lay in the bathtub, watching her fingers prune up, she wondered if the bar below her would be just as noisy tonight as it had been the previous.

She groaned, letting her head hit the back of her tub, could she really handle living like this? The only small thing she felt she could be thankful for was the fact that the bars patrons seemed to be all friendly, so she wouldn't have to worry about her safety if she came home late.

However, the noise was just too much.

Could she really ignore them every night? What about next week when she started work again, could she really handle come home at night to rowdy neighbours, no matter how friendly they appeared to be?

Still feeling rather dejected she abruptly stood up and climbed out of her bath, wrapping herself in an old towel she had borrowed from her parents. She pulled her wet hair up into a messy ponytail and then padded softly back to her bedroom.

It was still fairly early, and under normal circumstances she would have hesitated at the thought of calling someone so early in the morning, but these weren't normal circumstances. And, considering just how badly Daryl had lied to her, she decided she didn't owe him much courtesy.

She fished around in her hand bag and pulled out the old emergency mobile phone her mother kept and had kindly given to her, intent of punching Daryl's number in and giving him a piece of her mind.

However, as she moved to find his number in her contact list her phone lit up of it's own accord and began blaring out the cheesy default ringtone.

She frowned as a number she didn't recognise flashed across the screen. Hesitating for only a moment, she pressed the ANSWER button and brought the device up to her ear.

.

.

.

He hummed his favourite tune as he jumped into his faithful jeep and switched the engine on. He had purchased the jeep himself six years ago on his twentieth birthday and he knew it was his favourite purchase. His friends at the firehouse had nicknamed the contraption the Iron Dragon, and he had o admit, it was a very fitting nickname.

It was painted a glossy and yet dark gray that bordered on black, with and metallic gray outline around the car doors and hub. That, coupled with the deafening roar it gave off every time Gajeel switched it on, definitely gave the appearance of a mighty beast.

Gajeel smirked to himself as his jeep roared to life, letting out a (probably dangerous) waft of black smoke from the exhaust pipe. Long ago had his neighbours stopped complaining about the deafening roar his vehicle made.

Still humming pleasantly to himself he backed out of his assigned parking slot and drove easily down the main road.

It was his day off and he intended on doing some well needed grocery shopping. It was a bad habit of his, but he tended to deplete all his food supplies before he even considered going to the supermarket to purchase some more. As it stood, about the only thing he had at home was a few cans of tuna that he didn't even eat. The only reason he had it stuffed in the back of his cupboard was from that time Lily had to stay over for a week or two when his home was being fumigated.

Gajeel's nose wrinkled in disgust as he remembered that horrible two weeks. Lily had a strange love for fish and it had taken _weeks _for Gajeel to get the smell of tuna out of his apartment.

After he finished his shopping he figured he'd hit the gym.

He considered visiting the bar after gym, but opted against it. His eyebrows furrowed as he thought back to his previous evening at Fairy Tail.

It had been interesting to say the least.

She had been there. The woman who kept popping up in the forefront of his mind recently. She was a strange thing and he decided she reminded him of a firecracker. Small but fiery and poised to explode at any moment.

He could admit, he liked pushing her buttons. He liked taunting her, but that wasn't anything new. Gajeel loved teasing and taunting everyone. He just hadn't met many people who had the ability to deal with it and throw it back in his face before.

She was an enigma - and enigma that he found himself wanting to get to know a little better. And that notion freaked him out slightly.

At the tender of age of 26, Gajeel hadn't had many romantic relationships in his life. That wasn't to say he had been completely devoid of female company in his life, he was just more of a one night stand type of guy. His short lived relationships tended not to last past one night of drunken passion and if he was honest with himself, that hadn't really bothered him. He'd never felt the need to develop extreme feelings for any one woman.

His friends had begun to wonder if he were completely incapable of it. The only female he had a "deep" relationships with was Juvia and it was obvious to everyone that his feelings for her ran strictly on a platonic level.

Everyone, himself included, had long since given up hoping that Gajeel would ever find a partner.

But Levy…she was different.

It wasn't like he'd never been physically attracted to a woman before and he surmised that was all it was.

A simple physical attraction. Nothing to get worked up over at any cost. Anyway, judging by the way she had quickly and suddenly fled the night before, he could only surmise that she wasn't interested in him anyway.

He growled in frustration as he quickly pushed the brakes to allow an elderly lady to cross the road. This was all Lily's fault. He'd spent the rest of the evening murmuring about Gajeel and his supposed "dormant feelings of attraction towards Levy" and how "he had never seen Gajeel react so strangely to a woman before", that it was finally starting to get to him.

"Oi, oi, hurry up," he called, impatiently honking his horn to the elderly woman who seemed determined to take her sweet time crossing the road. It didn't seem to do any good, in fact, the woman seemed even more determined to walk at her snails pace after he honked. Huffing in frustration, he leant back in his seat and turned his head to peer out of the opposite window.

What he saw surprised him.

.

.

.

Levy sighed sadly as she got her first glimpse of her old home. For the most part, it didn't look too bad and she took comfort in the knowledge that hopefully most of her old neighbours would be able to move back in to their old homes. However, the small block that she had lived in was a charred and blackened square.

She gulped.

Would any of her possessions even be salvageable?

When the woman on the phone informed her that she would be able to re-enter her home to collect belongings she had felt so positive, but now as she stared at the destroyed building her hope was significantly diminished.

Taking a deep breath she crossed the road and walked briskly towards a man in a black suit. Several people that she recognised as having lived in the building with her had congregated around him and she assumed this was the health and safety inspector man she would be meeting. Her heartbeat quickened as a few of the people turned around and stared at her as she approached the group. She shot them all apologetic smiles, hoping to convey just how sorry she was for the damage she had caused.

"Ah, are you Miss McGarden then?" the man in the suit asked loudly once she had joined the group. She nodded silently, still not trusting her voice. Everyone was still staring at her, blaming her, and she knew if she opened her mouth she'd begin to cry.

"We've been waiting for you," he tittered, "my name is Evan Flors, I believe you spoke to my secretary on the phone?"

She nodded once more.

"As I was saying, your homes have been deemed safe enough for you to venture in and collect any items that weren't damaged in the fire. Unfortunately, your homes were also the homes that were damaged most in the fire and you will not be able to return to them any time soon."

Levy's heart lurched.

Everyone was glaring at her now. The woman to her right sighed in annoyance, and Levy glanced up at her before quickly looking down.

That was Number 27. She had two young boys.

To her left stood Number 42. He was an elderly man whose grandchildren would visit often.

They were both sending her heated glares and at that moment she wanted the ground to swallow her up.

"When will we be able to move back in?" Number 27 snapped, still glaring at Levy, "I've got two kids you know? I can't be slumming it at my parents house for months!"

The crowd murmured in agreement and Levy took a step backwards.

Evan waved a placating hand, "the building crews have been contacted by the insurance agency that covers the apartment block. At the end, I can give you their number and you can contact them for dates. All I'm here to do is get you your possessions safely, understood."

The crowd reluctantly nodded, though Levy noted that both Number 27 and Number 42 were still glaring at her, along with a few others whose door number she couldn't quite place.

Evan clapped his hands together and smiled brightly at the men and women before him, seemingly ignorant of the hostile waves they were currently emanating, "right! Shall we proceed then?"

Levy held back as the group followed him into the building.

She didn't want to watch them entering their destroyed homes.

She didn't want to see the damage she had done.

A choked sob fell from her lips and she quickly covered her mouth with her hand. Crying so publicly, in front of the people whose lives she had ruined no less, was a big no-no.

"Maybe I should go home and ask Evan if I can come back alone another day," she murmured to herself as she watched Number 27 enter the building. Surely that would be best for everyone.

"Tch, you always look so down."

Levy blinked and looked to her right, startled.

"What…what are you doing here?" she stammered, glaring accusingly at the horribly familiar Gajeel.

He answered with a grin.

.

.

.

He had never been much of a believer of coincidence before. Nothing ever seemed to fall that easily into place for him. But, here she was, the subject of his thoughts right in front of him.

He hadn't even realised that he had driven past her old apartment block, it certainly wasn't the way he usually drove to the supermarket.

Making his decision almost instantaneously, he made a quick U-turn in the road (ignoring the honks and beeps from the drivers he inevitably cut off) and quickly parked at the top of a side road nearest the apartment block.

He watched her from his parked car for a while.

_No_, he wasn't stalking her.

He was simply…observing.

He watched her slowly walk across the road and join the group speaking to the suited man. He watched her nervously glance around the group before ducking her head in what he assumed was either fear or shame.

She was ridiculously easy to read.

He watched a skinny woman next to her say something before glaring at Levy pointedly, and he watched as Levy recoiled backwards.

There were so many aspects to her personality that for some reason, fascinated him. At the bar the previous night she had been sarcastic and quick lipped but now she was like a little mouse.

Frail.

The group began to follow the suited man inside and he watched her stand still, not moving. Her head ducked once more and her little shoulders began to shake and he knew she was doing her best not to cry.

He wasn't sure why that bothered him so much.

She was always crying god dammit.

He wanted to see her smile. A proper smile. Not the sarcastic, fake grimaces she gave him. He wanted to see her face light up and hear her laugh.

And that thought made him sick.

When had he become such a goddamn pansy? He barely even knew the woman for God's sake.

He blamed Lily. The jerk was always reading poetry or Shakespeare or something equally frilly and totally _not _manly.

Before he even registered the decision properly with himself, he was out of the jeep and making his way briskly across the road.

Most the group had now entered the apartment, but she still stood their looking sadly at the ground as if she hoped it would swallow her whole.

He approached her silently, content in simply standing behind her until she realised he was there. And, if he was completely honest with himself, he was checking her out a little bit.

Though she was pretty short for a woman of her age, now he was focussing on her properly, he could tell that she was most definitely a woman. Her clothes clung to her petite figure and from the outline of her jacket he could tell that she possessed small curves. Nothing as shapely as perhaps Lucy's or Erza's, but the curves were definitely there.

His lips curled upwards as his gaze travelled downwards and settled on a rather pert bottom. His spiralling gaze moved towards her slim legs, covered by a pair of skinny jeans.

Yup, he was definitely _physically _attracted to her. Had this been anyone else, he would have been making plans to get her into his bedroom, however he couldn't bring himself to do that with Levy.

She seemed better than that.

She suddenly mumbled something he couldn't hear, but he immediately noted the way her shoulders began to shake again.

She was gearing herself up to cry.

"Tch, you always look so down," he suddenly muttered before grinning as she whirled around and fixed him with an accusing glare.

"What…what are you doing here?" she stammered, and his grin only widened. She looked like a little child who had been caught stealing the last cookie from the jar.

"Work," he lied easily, "one of us have gotta be in the building with you when you go in. I picked the short straw."

The suspicious glare she gave him did not ease and he wondered if his lie had been a bit too transparent. He didn't feel like admitting to her that the only reason he had gotten out of his car was because he had seen her, and if he was honest, she interested him.

Nope, he definitely didn't want to admit that.

"What?" he snapped.

She shrugged, "if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were stalking me."

He laughed, "like I said Shorty, I'm here for work. If you hadn't made this mess, I'd be somewhere else."

He expected her to spit her tongue out childishly or bite back with her own snappy retort, instead she just sighed.

"I have made a mess haven't I?"

He scratched the back of his neck nervously as he watched her sign in defeat. He'd never been particularly good with dealing with people's emotions, much less the emotions of a girl. If his friendship with Juvia had taught him anything it was that girls were a thousand times more sensitive than any male, and whilst they were upset and vulnerable it was simply best for him to shut up.

However, he sensed that silence wouldn't do Levy any good.

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself," he said bluntly.

Immediately she looked up to glare at him and he figured he'd said the wrong thing. Shrugging, he prodded her shoulder.

"What's done is done, sitting here crying about it isn't gonna fix anything is it?"

She said nothing and he sighed.

_So stubborn. _

"I wasn't crying!" she huffed after a few moments of silence, and with that she marched purposefully towards the building.

Gajeel smirked and shook his head, "so stubborn."

.

.

They entered her small apartment and she gasped in shock at the damage that had been done to her previous home.

The once yellow door that led to her kitchen was jet black. The only sign that it had once been yellow were the small strips at the top that had managed to escape being burnt. Her television and stereo set had been melted almost completely, her rug was non existent now, and half of her couch had been burnt off.

They stepped further into the apartment and Levy was surprised to see that the wooden floorboards she stepped on felt surprisingly soft and light.

"They're waterlogged," Gajeel said suddenly, noting the look on her face.

"Ah," she murmured as she gingerly stepped on a plank and watched the water squelch up from beneath her feet, "this is going to cost so much to fix."

She wasn't really speaking to Gajeel, but the overbearing man answered anyway.

"You're covered though, right? Your insurance?"

She nodded, the insurance company had contact her a few days ago and a hefty sum would be placed into her bank account to cover repairs, but she had to wonder if it would really stretch that far.

Quietly, she moved towards what had once been her couch and gingerly picked up the red pillow that had managed to survive the fire. She brought it up to her nose and sniffed a few times before recoiling.

"Yuck!"

Gajeel couldn't help but laugh as he watched her drop the pillow back onto the couch with a look of disgust on her face. In three quick strides he was by her side and picking up the pillow for himself. Levy frowned as he lifted the pillow to his face and sniffed, just as she had done. Unlike herself however, his face didn't contort in disgust and he didn't chuck the pillow away. Instead he thrust the soft item into her arms.

"What's wrong with it?"

"It stinks of smoke that's what's wrong with it," Levy retorted, pulling the pillow away from her chest as far as possible, "I'll never be able to wash that smell out of it."

"Nah that's nothing," Gajeel said dismissively, "most of your crap-

"Hey!"

"-stuff, is gonna smell like that. Take what you can, you'll be able to get the smell out of more things than you think."

Levy pondered what he had said for a few seconds before nodding, she supposed out of everyone in the building, a fireman would know best. Even if said fireman was a tiny bit of a jerk.

"Alright," she agreed, hugging the pillow closer to her chest, "I suppose that's logical."

"Tch!" Gajeel snorted, "you're lucky you've got an expert here helping you," he grinned brightly and Levy found herself smiling back.

When Gajeel smiled, _really _smiled, it was very contagious.

"An expert who happens to be a stalker," she hummed quietly, deliberately turning around so Gajeel wouldn't be able to see the sly smirk on her face, "but an expert all the same I suppose."

"Oi, I aint a stalker."

She merely moved towards her bedroom in response. She wasn't an idiot, she knew Gajeel's story of there having to be someone from the fire department in the building was a lie, but she didn't really feel like picking him up on it.

She didn't know why he'd truly come to the apartment block. Was he really stalking her? Or was it simply a coincidence?

Either way, she found that she didn't particularly care.

Despite his gruff demeanour, Gajeel wasn't really all that bad and she wasn't one to push away anyone with kind intentions.

She did wonder briefly what his girlfriend would think about it, but she pushed the thoughts away quickly. She had nothing to feel guilty about, they were simply two friends, (were they friends?), hanging out.

Ignoring Gajeel's splutters that he was most definitely "not a stalker God damn it!" she entered her bedroom.

A pleased laugh fell from her lips as she realised that the room was barely damaged. The wall in the far corner had some bad burns, but nothing had been leant against the wall. What pleased her most was the fact that her bookshelf was unharmed.

She practically skipped towards the shelf and ran her fingers along the spines of her precious books. She could sniff out that horrid stench of smoke that had gotten stuck between the pages of her novels, but she knew she could deal with that as long as her collection wasn't damaged.

Gajeel watched in amusement as Levy began tearing books down from her shelf and placing them in piles to take back with her.

He'd never seen someone act so positively towards literature before, but he could see in her eyes that there was a real love there. He wondered if she was a Librarian perhaps? He could definitely see her pottering around a large library, pulling books down for everyone with a huge smile on her face.

"Oi," he called as he too stepped further into her room, finding himself quite fascinated by it. It had a very distinct "Levy" air to it. There were photo's stuck on every wall, books dashed in corners, and a bunch of teddy bears huddled at the top of her bed. The room was a light pink colour which made him smirk.

He hadn't pegged her to be the type of girl who liked things like pink and teddy bears.

"Hm?" she replied, not really paying attention as she dashed around the room rescuing books from hiding places he hadn't even noticed.

"What do you do?"

"Oh, I'm a teachers assistant!" she said brightly, "at, uh, Fiore Primary School."

He nodded to himself and allowed her to get back to smiling gleefully over her precious books. Immediately, the image of Levy sitting on a chair reading a fairy tale to a bunch of small brats came to the forefront of his mind, and he found that he quite liked the image he was creating.

He began humming to himself as he perused Levy's room a little more, staring intently at the photographs that lined the walls.

He sniggered to himself as he came across a few baby photos. A small blue haired elf like girl sat in a swimming pool, a small pink bathing suit stretched across her body. His eyes moved to the picture next to it and he saw the same blue haired girl grinning cheesily up at the camera from her seat on what looked like a brand new bicycle. In the photograph next to that a slightly older Levy sat on a white couch with a small black haired baby wrapped in a towel nestled happily in her arms. More family photos followed for a while.

He had to fight the urge to laugh out loud as he came across a photograph of a clearly teenage Levy sitting in between two guys. She smiled brightly, showing off braces, as she wrapped her arms around the necks of her two friends. She looked so…nerdy, with her braces and thick rimmed glasses, coupled with the unflattering school uniform she wore, and yet, it was oddly cute. There were several photos of Levy and her two male friends as they grew up and Gajeel decided that one of Levy posing awkwardly in a bumblebee costume, guy number 1 dressed as plant, and guy number 2 dressed as an athlete was a recent one. Perhaps the last Halloween?

He stretched, about to turn and ask Levy if she needed any help bringing her books down, when one more photograph caught his eye.

There were only two people in the photograph, and it was clearly a "selfie" taken by Levy, he assumed. She was sat on a man's lap, wearing nothing but pair of short shorts and a plain white vest. The man, a musclely fellow with curly brown hair, had his arms wrapped around her waist and his face pressed into her neck intimately.

He could immediately tell they were lovers, and the thought made him uncomfortable.

She had never mentioned anything about having a boyfriend before and so he had just assumed she was single.

"What're you staring at?" her bubbly voice broke through his thoughts and he jumped back slightly as she peeked her head past him.

"Nothing, just some photos, you were a cute kid," he grunted, turning away quickly to face her large pile of books, "you bringing them all with you?"

There had to be at _least _one hundred books lying on the floor. He frowned as he only heard silence and turned back around to find Levy standing there with one of the photos in her hand.

He leaned over slightly and noted it was the one with the curly haired man.

_Tch, typical_.

Levy stared at the photograph before coming to her decision. She slipped the photograph out of its frame, place the frame back on her dresser and then swiftly tore the photograph in two.

Gajeel watched with wide eyes as the two halves to the picture fell to the floor.

"Sorry," Levy mumbled, "I…I just needed to do that."

Gajeel swallowed, "I, ah, I take it you're not together anymore?"

She shook her head, deciding not to offer up any more information about the specifics of their break up.

The pair stood in silence for a while and for the first time since meeting her Gajeel could honestly say he felt awkward in her presence.

Clearly, the break up with the brown haired man had been recent, and Levy didn't want to speak about it.

Something Gajeel was thankful for, he absolutely _hated _when Juvia or any of the others at the firehouse would come to him to moan about their relationships. Who the hell did they think he was? One of the girls?

"Want me to take these down for you?" Gajeel asked to break the uneasy silence that had swept over the room. For a few seconds Levy blinked at him in confusion,

"Take them down where?"

He rolled his eyes and lightly rapped her forehead, "your car. I dunno but I don't think you can manage all of that yourself. You're welcome to try though."

Levy reddened as she realised that what he said was true. However,

"I don't have a car," she mumbled, feeling rather silly now. She hadn't ever imagined that many of her belongings would be salvageable and thus hadn't bothered calling her parents to ask for a lift. She had just assumed she would be able to carry it home in a trip or two. Staring around her more or less completely undamaged room, she realise that two trips had morphed into at least ten.

She groaned.

"How the hell were you gonna move all of this then?" Gajeel asking, voicing the very question she had been asking herself.

"I didn't think I'd have this much!" she snapped back, glaring at him briefly before turning away and biting her lip. She supposed she could still call her parents, but they would both be working and she hated to interrupt them. A large hand slamming onto her shoulder interrupted her train of thought and she peered around to find Gajeel smirking at her as if he had just won the lottery.

"C'mon Shorty, I'll give you a lift."

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* * *

><p><strong>AN: **What, this is like the fastest I've ever updated right? Aaand this is the longest chapter so far, I hope you're happy!

I hope you like this chapter, I do, I have this image of Gajeel being very uncertain about what he wants from Levy in the canon so I hope I portrayed that properly. Hmm hmmm, not much to say, just please review guys, I really love hearing your opinions, ideas, theories, even critique! It motivates me.

Thank you :3


	8. Chapter 8

Smokin' Hot

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?", and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."

**8; **Defeat

Levy huffed lightly as she semi-struggled to push open the door with just her bottom. In her hands she held one final box of clothes. Much to her delight, her wardrobe had been untouched and all her clothes and shoes had been protected.

She and Gajeel had spent the last two hours or so moving around her apartment and collecting everything she could bring home into large boxes Evan had provided for them. The only room that was, understandably, a complete write off was her kitchen. They had entered the small room and Levy had immediately recoiled backwards, coughing as the stench of smoke wafted into her nostrils.

Gajeel had laughed at her reaction and sauntered in cockily, showing off the fact that the smell of fire and smoke didn't bother him at all. Most of the kitchen was a blackened mess, and at one point Levy had gingerly attempted to open a cupboard, only for the burnt door to fall off it's hinges and crumble pathetically to the floor.

The pair had unanimously agreed that the kitchen was a lost cause and quickly left the room. Quite a of her belongings in her bathroom and lounge area were ruined, but enough was salvageable not to dampen her rapidly improving mood.

What had started off as a pretty horrid day was shaping up to be rather enjoyable. From their first meeting, she never would have guessed that Gajeel could be such good company. He managed to keep up light conversation with her whilst they were tearing apart her apartment, without making it awkward. She was especially surprised to learn that he was pretty funny, having reduced her into fits of giggles several times.

She smiled lightly as she finally managed to push the door open and began to walk slowly across the car park to meet Gajeel in his car.

Once everything was settled in her life, she decided that she would have to do something nice for him to repay him for his kindness. From calling and paying for her cab the night of the fire, to helping her transfer all her belongings, he really was an angel in disguise.

"Oi, oi, hurry up!" Gajeel yelled from across the road, honking his horn as he watched her approaching slowly, "I don't have all day."

Levy's eyebrow twitched. Ok, so maybe calling him an angel in disguise was a bit too far.

"You don't need to be so impatient," she shot back, glaring at him pointedly, "and could you open the trunk please?"

Wordlessly, Gajeel pushed a button from the front of the car and Levy watched the trunk lid pop open.

"Thank you."

She walked around the back of his jeep and deposited the box inside amongst the many other boxes and black bags they had already chucked in there.

To her dismay, when she tried to reach up to grab a hold of the trunk lid to slam it shut, she realised that she couldn't reach it. Grumbling lightly she quickly jumped into the air and grabbed a hold of the lid, bringing it down with her as she hit the floor.

Once again, she fervently wished she were taller. Jumping to close a trunk of a car just wasn't fair!

Still moaning to herself about her petite height, Levy walked towards the front of the jeep and quickly slipped inside, settling herself into the passenger seat.

As soon as she entered the car she realised that Gajeel was roaring with laughter. His chuckles were shaking his body so much that he was actually holding onto his side.

She pouted as she watched him laugh, guessing correctly that he had seen her having to jump to close the trunk.

"Yeah, yeah," she sighed, "it was hilarious, I know."

"Lighten up short stuff," he cackled, "it was kinda cute."

The word slipped out before he had a chance to consider what he was saying. By the time he _did _realise what dreaded little four lettered word he had let loose it was too late.

"Cute?" Levy asked, quirking her eyebrow.

His cheeks reddened. Choosing to ignore her he quickly turned the ignition, causing his jeep to roar to life.

Levy squeaked in shock as the vehicle let out a loud bellow before Gajeel turned the steering wheel and began to drive down the road.

Sensing that he wasn't going to comment on his seemingly accidental admission that he found her cute, Levy reclined further into her seat. If she was honest with herself, she did find it mildly uncomfortable that he had called her cute.

What would his girlfriend think of that?

Still, she couldn't deny that it did make her feel a little happy. The last person who had complimented her looks in any way had been David after all. It felt nice to be acknowledged by somebody else just for once.

Did that make her a bad person? Craving the attention of somebody else's boyfriend?

She glanced sideways at him. He was staring fixatedly on the road and she wondered if she was maybe reading into things too much.

Perhaps Gajeel complimented all his female friends?

"Stop staring at me, Shrimp," he grunted suddenly, glancing sideways to find Levy staring at him curiously, "it's creepy."

Realising that she'd been caught staring she quickly whirled her head around to peer out of her window.

Gajeel smirked in satisfaction as he watched her cheeks begin to redden. Good. If he had to be embarrassed a few minutes ago, then so did she.

Fair is fair after all.

"Why are fireman?" Levy asked suddenly as they stopped at a red traffic light

The pair had been submerged in silence for the last five minutes or so. It was a relatively comfortable silence, that had both of them wondering why they felt so comfortable with someone that, in all rights, should have been a complete stranger.

"Hm?"

She turned to watch his face, "why did you decide to become a fireman?" curiosity was etched into her face as she waited patiently for his answer.

He exhaled a mouthful of air as he tried to formulate an answer, "it's a tricky subject."

"How so?"

Turning slightly, he gave her a frustrated glare. He hated telling this story. It wasn't something he was particularly proud of.

"I was a shitty kid," he said honestly, "those kids you get in school who're always causing trouble somehow. Didn't pay attention in school, heh heh," he laughed ruefully, "I didn't even turn up most days."

Levy's eyes widened in surprise, "why?"

"Family problems," he said curtly, and Levy wisely decided not to push the question. It was clear that the topic was a sore one and she knew they weren't close enough for her to breach it just yet.

Half heartedly, she wondered if they ever would become close enough for her to know his inner most secrets.

"Anyway, I didn't have much direction in life. I was lost," he continued, "long story short, the home I was staying in was set on fire by some of the other jerks living there. A little girl died."

Levy gasped and clutched her heart, "no!" she whispered.

He nodded briskly, "yeah. It was a prank that went out of control, they didn't mean it, but…" he trailed off quietly. He hated remembering that day. He had felt so helpless, so useless…

He'd never really interacted with any of the other youths living in the Home, but he had seen the girl often enough. She was about 12, a skinny blonde haired child who dragged around a pink bunny with her everywhere she went.

She got teased mercilessly about it by some of the other kids, but he mainly kept away from the younger ones. Her bedroom had been directly opposite his. When the fire broke out he hadn't even stopped to think that somebody would need help or assistance getting out, he had just focussed on getting himself out alive.

When her lifeless body had been carried out he had felt sick. He blamed himself for her death.

"I never wanted to see anyone else in that position again, if I could help it," he muttered, "so I did a few courses and joined up."

"Oh…Gajeel," Levy said softly, she'd never imagined he had such a heartbreaking reason for joining the fire department. She had just been curious. It certainly wasn't a career path everyone was suited for, and she had been wondering for some time what had pushed Gajeel into doing it.

"Well, yeah," he said gruffly, deciding that the conversation needed a quick change of topic he swiftly asked, "what about you?"

"Me?"

"You're a teacher right? What made you wanna do that?" his nose wrinkled as he thought of it, "Lord knows I wouldn't be able to handle those bratty kids every day."

Levy chuckled and immediately the tension that had enveloped them vanished.

"They're not bratty," she argued back good naturedly, "they're little angels…for the most part!"

Gajeel rolled his eyes, something that Levy didn't miss.

"They are!" she insisted, "they're good kids."

"Yeah, yeah," he said, clearly not convinced, "so what made you do it?"

"Well, I'm not a teacher yet," she admitted sheepishly, "I've got a few months more of just being a teachers assistant, and if I get a good assessment, hopefully I'll get promoted. But, umm, well, I've always loved children."

Her eyes lit up as she began to talk about her class.

"And the idea of teaching them, filling their minds with thoughts and ideas. Doesn't it sounds wonderful?"

Gajeel firmly shook his head.

Levy shrugged and smiled, "it's not for everyone, I suppose. But, I guess the ultimate thing that pushed me to want to be a teacher was when I taught my younger sister how to read," she smiled as she remembered the memory.

She had been ten years old and Rianne was just old enough to be able to pick up a book and understand that it was to be used for reading and not chewing on or hurling across the room. Levy had spent the whole of her summer borrowing children's books from the library and teaching her baby sister to sounds out the letters and words.

She could still remember clearly the moment Rianne had managed to read the tale of Beauty and the Beast all by herself.

"It's a really rewarding feeling watching someone so small become entranced by books and knowing that you're the reason for it," she sighed happily, "that was when I decided I wanted to be a teacher."

He couldn't help but smile as he watched her recount her story.

The love and passion she had for her job was obvious to everyone.

"Ooo!" she squealed suddenly, clapping her hands together, "you could come in one day!"

"Eh?"

"We're going to be doing a Health and Safety module in a few weeks, you could come in and talk to them about fire safety!"

Gajeel grimaced. They often had schools phoning the firehouse asking if they'd be able to spare someone to come and talk to their students about fire safety and he always avoided those days like the plague. Usually Mirajane or Erza volunteered for the job.

They liked going to schools and talking to little brats. Not him.

"I don't know…" he said slowly.

"Just think about it!" Levy pleaded, "it'll be fun, and I can show you that they're not brats!"

"Mmm, I'll think about it," he conceded, quickly turning away from her. She was currently giving him her best impression of puppy dog eyes and unfortunately, she was doing a damn good job at it.

_Damn it_, he cursed himself. Since befriending Juvia all those years ago, he thought he had become immune to women and their damn puppy dog eyes.

Apparently Levy was a pro at it.

She clasped her hands together gratefully, "thank you!"

He narrowed his eyes as her.

"That didn't mean yes, shorty."

Instead of replying, Levy simply smiled and hummed in response.

.

.

.

They pulled up to the front of the old bar that Levy lived above about twenty minutes later.

"How come you were in here last night, by the way?" Levy asked as she began to fumble with her seatbelt, "I have to admit, this is the last place I'd expect to see you."

He raised an eyebrow in surprise, "you haven't checked out the area yet?"

"Nope, I haven't really had the time," she admitted, "I was planning on doing it today or maybe tomorrow. Why?"

He grinned, "the fire house is about five minutes down that way," he jerked a thumb behind him, "most of the people who use the bar are from the fire house. Makarov is the grandfather of one of our men, so we've been using his place for the last couple of years."

Levy made an "ah" noise of understanding, "so I guess I better get used to seeing you and your friends, huh?"

"Pretty much."

Levy decided that that wasn't too bad. Knowing that the bar mainly frequented fire fighters helped to reinforce her theory that the bar would always be safe.

Never would she have to worry about being harassed or attacked by the patrons when she arrived home late.

The noise was still an issue, but she knew she would much rather prefer their obscene amounts of noise in place of an unsafe area.

_You can't win 'em all_, she thought to herself as she swung open her door and moved towards the back of the jeep to help Gajeel unload her belongings.

He popped open the trunk and without warning reached in and chucked a black bag full of clothes into Levy's arms.

She stumbled backwards slightly as she just about managed to catch the bag before it fell to the floor and spilled all her clothes.

"Hey," she snapped, "warn me next time!"

"Stay sharp short stuff," he snorted as he took two boxes full of books out of the trunk and carried them with ease, "open the door will ya," he nodded towards the closed door of the bar.

"R-right!" Levy stammered, turning around immediately and walking towards the door. Watching him carry the two heavy boxes without so much as even grunting in strain made her realise some.

Gajeel was extremely well built.

Sure, she'd always known he had muscles. That much was obvious. Even under the long sleeve hoodie he wore, she could sometimes see his muscles straining against the material.

But she'd never stopped to consider just how in shape he actually was.

Blushing, she pushed open the door and held it open for Gajeel to walk through.

They entered the deserted bar and looked around quickly. Not even Makarov was sitting half asleep on top of the counter like Levy had become accustomed to seeing in the short time she had lived there.

"Oi, old man?" Gajeel suddenly called loudly, seemingly wondering where Makarov was just as Levy had done.

Silence followed his call and for a few moments Levy wondered if Makarov really wasn't around.

"I don't think he's- oh!" she began but was swiftly interrupted by the door behind the bar being pushed open.

A tall bulky man with bright blonde hair sauntered out, followed by the tiny form of Makarov.

Gajeel narrowed his eyes as he stared at the blonde haired man.

"Laxus," he growled, dropping the boxes of books immediately to walk over to him and glare pointedly in his face.

The blonde man, Laxus, smirked, "Gajeel," he replied in way of greeting, "still mad about that swap I see."

"You got it, bastard."

Laxus merely chuckled and waved a nonchalant hand, "fancy a rematch."

"You're on jerk!"

"Tonight?"

"Nah, I'm on an early shift tomorrow."

"Ah. Saturday?"

"You're on!"

"Same wager?"

"You got it."

Both men shook hands with equally sadistic smirks on their faces. Makarov appeared to not be bothered by the exchange, but Levy watched on in fascination. Aside from the brief encounter with Makarov and Juvia the previous night, she'd never seen Gajeel interact with another person before. Not including herself obviously.

From what she could deduce, he seemed to have a fairly good relationship with Laxus. Though it seemed to be a dysfunctional one. For some reason, that idea didn't surprise her. She doubted that Gajeel had a truly normal relationship with anyone.

Makarov sidled closer to her and chuckled, "that's my grandson, Laxus."

"Oh, he works at the fire house with Gajeel?" she asked, remembering the information Gajeel had told her earlier.

Makarov nodded, "yes, you can tell he and Gajeel get along marvellously."

Levy giggled, "is he like that with everyone?"

"Pretty much." Makarov sighed honestly, "you get used to it."

She had to agree. She'd only known Gajeel for a few days really, but already she was used to his bizarre personality and quirks.

"What the hell are you doing here so early," Laxus asked with a frown, "you taking tips from Cana now?"

Both Gajeel and Makarov chuckled and Levy felt like she was missing some sort of inside joke.

"Nah, had to help the shrimp move her crap," he jerked a thumb behind her and Levy suddenly found herself the subject of Laxus' stare.

"H-hello!" she said weakly as Laxus stared at her critically. He was a very big man and Levy couldn't help but feel slightly intimidated by him.

"Yo," he nodded towards her, seemingly not all that interested in her anyway.

She let out a sigh of relief as Laxus turned his attention away from her finally.

"Anyway, I gotta go. See ya later Gramps," he walked past his grandfather and lightly tapped him on the head, "Gajeel. Shrimp," he waved casually.

And he was gone.

Leaving Gajeel and Makarov roaring with laughter at his use of the nickname Gajeel had used for Levy.

"It's not funny!" she spluttered, "are all your stupid friends going to use those ridiculous nicknames?!"

Gajeel shrugged, "probably. Get used to it."

If she wasn't so embarrassed about the recent turn of events, she probably would have questioned Gajeel's use of the phrase "get used to it". It implied that he intended seeing more of her.

As it stood, she was too busy blushing and yelling at Gajeel to "Stop laughing damn it!" that she didn't notice.

Makarov, on the other hand, did notice. A soft smile graced his features as he watched the two bicker.

Things were definitely changing.

.

.

.

"I've never been up here you know?" Gajeel muttered conversationally as he dutifully followed Levy up the staircase that led to her new apartment. He found it so weird that he'd spent so much time in the bar below, but he'd never ventured to the back before.

"I'll give you the grand tour then," Levy laughed, rolling her eyes as they stepped onto the landing and walked down the small corridor.

They had spent a few more minutes talking conversationally with Makarov before the elderly man had mentioned that he was expecting an important phone call and he would unfortunately have to leave them.

The pair then went back to the jeep and quickly unloaded the rest of Levy's belongings, deciding it would be easier to do it now rather than have to keep making trips back when they finally made it to her apartment.

They reached the door that led to her apartment and she deftly hoisted the black bag under one arm as she finished around in her pockets for her keys.

Gajeel leant against the wall as he watched Levy fumble around to open her door.

He had to admit, he liked the view.

The attraction he felt towards the midget in front of him was growing with each passing second. Right now he found himself fascinated by her hair.

Sure, Juvia had blue hair, so it wasn't all that strange. But hers was different. Cut in a short cut that hung just above her shoulders, it exposed an ample amount of her neck and the urge to pull her hair back and nibble on the sure to be soft expanse of skin there was bubbling up quickly. It also looked immeasurably soft, and he found himself wanting to touch it, just to see if it was as soft as it looked.

"Ugh," he grunted, shaking his head quickly. Where the hell were these sissy thoughts coming from.

"Hmm?" Levy turned her head backwards, "did you say something?"

"Nah."

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously for a few seconds before shrugging and shoving the door to her apartment open, "come on then, in you get."

He followed silently and peered with interest around her new apartment.

"Woah, it's pretty nice," he admitted, nodding in satisfaction. Truth be told, he'd always imagined that the rooms above the bar would be in terrible condition and he been slightly worried that Levy would be living in unsuitable conditions.

As he stared around the brightly lit and rather cosy apartment, he realised that he couldn't have been more wrong.

It lacked the "Levy-esque" air her previous apartment had, but he supposed that had more to do with the fact that none of her own personal belongings were up yet.

"Mhmm, it's lovely," Levy agreed with a soft smile. She had fallen in love with her small apartment in a very short space of time.

With a loud thud, Gajeel dropped the boxes of books to the floor in the centre of her lounge area, "lets go Shrimp, you ain't gonna force me to do all the work here."

Protesting only a little bit, Levy followed him back downstairs to the bar to get the rest of her belongings.

.

.

.

It took them no more than twenty minutes to bring all her belongings upstairs into her apartment.

Gajeel did most of the work and Levy couldn't help but marvel at the fact that even after carrying box after box of heavy appliances and books, he had barely broken a sweat.

Boxes and bags littered her small floor space. Gajeel had offered to help her unpack, but she had firmly said no to that. He had done so much for her already, she would have felt far to guilty to use his help anymore than necessary.

"I would offer you some tea or something," she smiled nervously once they had finished dropping everything off, "but I'm afraid I'm running low on food at the moment."

"Don't worry about it, I gotta go do some food shopping myself, I should probably get going."

Nodding in understanding she gestured for him to go first and began walking Gajeel slowly towards her apartment door, feeling strange. For some reason, she felt like she should say something.

As they finally approached the door she opened her mouth to speak a word of thanks towards the grumpy man, however Gajeel beat her to it first.

He turned to face her, a strange look on his face.

His cheeks were slightly red and he was desperately looking everywhere but her.

"Listen," he said bluntly, scratching the back of his head nervously, "do ya maybe wanna go out one day?"

Levy blinked. She had not been expecting that.

"Are…are you asking me out on a date?"

He simply shrugged, "call it what you want."

Levy frowned. How the hell was he so nonchalant about it? And…

"What about your girlfriend!?" she spluttered, eyes narrowed as she considered the fact that she had severely misjudged Gajeel.

Asking her out on a date without a single regard to his girlfriend?

The thought made her sick.

He was just as bad as David.

"Huh?"

"Your _girlfriend_," she hissed, "that blue haired woman who was at the bar last night!"

Silence engulfed the pair as Levy stood glaring at him. Gajeel wore a look of confusion on his face for a few seconds, which then transformed into a look of understanding, which finally transformed into a large smirk.

"What's so funny?" Levy asked bluntly, noticing that Gajeel was gearing himself up to roar with laughter.

"Juvia," he laughed, "Juvia is not my girlfriend."

"Then…then you were on a date?"

He shook his head, trying (and failing) to stop his laughter, "nah. That'd be weird."

"Oh."

Her face reddened as she stood there, watching Gajeel laugh unabashedly in her face.

His laugh was unique. She'd never heard anything else like that high pitched, "_gihihihihi" _he'd laugh when something really entertained him.

"You two seemed very close, ok!" she defended herself eventually, tired of listening to his damn laugh at her expense, "anyone would've thought that same!"

"Is that why you disappeared so suddenly last night?" he asked with a knowing glint in his eye.

"N-no!"

He smirked, deciding that her stuttered denial was answer enough for him.

"Soooo," he whistled, rocking back onto the balls of his feet casually, "about my first question…?"

"I've just gotten out of a pretty serious relationship…" she said quietly, not really knowing what she was saying. A part of her thought that it was far too early to be back in the dating game, her wounds were still fresh from David's betrayal. But another part of her, a slightly more dominant part, yearned for her to say _yes_. She genuinely enjoyed Gajeel's company after all.

"Just as friends then," he pushed, "you don't need to make a big deal out of it."

She considered his proposal seriously for a few moments before nodding, "just as friends?" she asked uncertainly.

He grinned, "just as friends."

.

.

.

Her left eye began to twitch as she tapped her fingers impatiently on her small kitchen table. Several half empty Chinese take out boxes lay strewn around her, evidence of her impromptu dinner just an hour or so before.

Because she was so suddenly called away to her old apartment block to get her belongings, she unfortunately hadn't had any time to go grocery and supply shopping as she had originally planned. Before it had gotten too dark for her to safely venture outside she dipped around the corner and located a row of take away shops and she was very pleased to find a nice tasting Chinese shop.

Her plan had been to eat her dinner and then hurry to bed before the bar below filled up too much and the noise reached deafening levels.

She had finished her dinner over an hour ago.

Her right eye began to switch as someone below screeched with laughter.

Halfway through her meal the laughter, thudding, and music began and she realised that her plan was destined for failure.

"I should really invest in some ear plugs," she mumbled dejectedly, pushing herself away from her table and collecting her dishes to dump them in the sink.

She half heartedly considered putting on her radio and blasting her own music to try and drown out the ruckus below, but she realised that there was no way her radio would be loud enough to completely drown them out.

Both eyes twitched as she heard a deafening crash followed by a howl of pain, followed (strangely) by laughter.

Was this the life she would have to live from now on.

Twitching silently and angrily in her home as the people downstairs made enough noise to deafen someone?

It was ridiculous.

Somebody began singing loudly and badly.

"No," she growled, "no more!"

She already knew that asking them to quieten down would prove to be useless. But there was one tactic she had yet to try.

"If you can't beat them, join them," she huffed.

Enough was enough.

_Time to go and meet the neighbours. _

_._

_._

_._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Ta-da~ they now have a date and Levy is finally going to interact with more of the Fairy Tail characters muahahahaha ^_^!

Fun fact: I have to jump to close the trunk of my car L

Enjoyed it? Hated it? Please review!


	9. Chapter 9

Smokin' Hot

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?", and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."

**9; **Table Manners

The scene before her was rather like what she had seen that first night she had ventured downstairs to the bar below to (unsuccessfully) complain.

It was more or less packed out with patrons laughing, dancing, and drinking their night away.

She bit her bottom lip and sighed, unlike last time she had left her blanket back at her apartment, but on her feet she wore a pair of white bunny rabbits slippers and she begun to wonder if that had been a mistake.

She felt extremely vulnerable standing amidst many tipsy revellers in only her pyjamas shorts, a baggy shirt and her trusty bunny slippers.

She half heartedly considered fleeing back upstairs, but dismissed the notion almost immediately, knowing that if she went back upstairs there would be no way she would be coming out again.

Taking a deep breath she plunged further into the crowd and made her way timidly to the bar. She could see Kinana bustling about at the other end and she felt mildly comforted with the notion that she recognised at least one person.

She hopped onto an empty bar stool and sat patiently waiting for the purple haired bartender to notice her. Whilst she waited she couldn't help but peer in fascination at the people around her.

They all seemed so cheerful as they bustled around the bar. Some were squashed around booths or tables laughing merrily as they sipped their drinks. Some were stood up, leaning against the wall talking intimately with the person they were with. There was a snooker table stuffed away in a corner and a group of people were gathered around that, cheering loudly as two men played their game.

Strangely, a man with pink hair was drunkenly throwing fists at an equally drunken black haired man, who for some reason was shedding his shirt. Nobody around them seemed overly bothered by their altercation and Levy got the feeling it was a regular occurrence.

Shaking her head in confusion, she returned her attention back to the bar in front of her. Kinana was still down at the other end and Levy couldn't help but sigh. She felt incredibly out of place and lonely with each passing second she sat waiting.

She twiddled her thumbs and waited patiently, deciding that she would have just one quick drink and then disappear up to her apartment.

Kinana methodically made her way down the bar and eventually got to Levy. Her eyes widened in surprise as she stared at the small woman before her,

"Oh!" she gasped, her lips curving into an easy smile as she leant against the bar top, "didn't think I'd be seeing you so soon again!"

Levy flushed, "neither did I, to be honest."

Kinana smirked knowingly, "noise too much for you?"

"You got it."

Laughing, Kinana ducked under the bar and quickly grabbed a long thin glass, "what would you like?"

Levy considered the question for a while. She wasn't the most familiar with drinks, having only sipped the posh and expensive wines David favoured, but she had quite enjoyed the light pink concoction Kinana had given her last time.

"That Woo-Woo thing please," she said firmly, the drink had been perfect for her. It was light, but not too light that she couldn't taste the alcohol in it, but then again not to strong that the alcoholic taste was overbearing.

"One Woo-Woo coming up, oh, hey Lucy!" she added brightly as a shadow appeared behind Levy's shoulder.

"Hey Kinana," the shadow said before plopping itself on the barstool next to Levy's. Kinana muttered that she'd be one second and then disappeared off to get the ingredients she needed to make Levy's drink.

Curiously, Levy peered to her left to survey the woman who had taken the seat next to her. For some reason, she felt vaguely familiar. Almost immediately, Levy's eyes were drawn to the woman's bountiful bust and she unconsciously crossed her arms around her own less developed chest. Her eyes quickly travelled up to her face and she was rather shocked to see the woman was staring at her with a bemused smile on her face.

Levy's face reddened immediately, embarrassed at being caught staring, "s-sorry!" she spluttered, tearing her eyes away from the blonde haired woman Kinana had referred to as Lucy.

Lucy laughed.

"I haven't seen you here before," she said, still smiling,.

Levy frowned slightly and turned back to face the blonde, for a few seconds she considered simply walking away from the over friendly woman. After all, sparking up a conversation with a complete stranger in a bar wasn't high up on her list of things she did often. But then she decided against it, deciding that the whole reason of her coming down here was to try and familiarise herself with the bar patrons and perhaps make a friend or two.

"I just moved into the apartment above," she said nervously, still not overly comfortable of the idea of talking to a complete stranger like this, but determined to plough on.

Lucy's eyes widened in understanding and she slammed a fist onto the open palm of her hand, "Ahah!" she gasped, "I heard a rumour that some poor soul had moved up there!"

Levy winced at her use of the word "poor soul" but Lucy appeared not to notice.

The friendly blonde stuck out her hand, "Lucy Heartphillia, nice to meet you!"

Levy stared dumbly at her perfectly manicured hand for a few seconds before she remembered that she was acting rather impolite. Her named sounded so familiar, but Levy couldn't put her finger on it.

"Levy McGarden," she replied, grasping Lucy's hand and shaking it gently, "it's nice to meet you too!"

"Levy. Levy," Lucy hummed thoughtfully as they dropped hands, "have we met before? You seem somehow familiar."

Levy shook her head. Lucy was a fairly impressionable woman and Levy felt sure she would have remembered her if they had met before.

"I don't think we've met," she said honestly, "but you do seem rather familiar to me as well."

Lucy thought about it for a few seconds before shrugging, "maybe I just have one of those faces."

"Maybe," Levy conceded, her attention being drawn away suddenly as Kinana returned with a large glass full of the familiar light pink drink she had ordered.

Levy thanked her and then fished out a few coins out of her pocket and handed it over to the bubbly bartender.

Once Kinana had deposited the money in the till and returned Levy her change, she turned to Lucy and grinned brightly at her.

Levy got the impression that the two was extremely familiar with each other, and she wondered how often Lucy was in the bar.

She suddenly remembered Gajeel telling her that the bar was populated mainly by those who worked at the Fire House down the road and she wondered if Lucy worked there. She couldn't imagine the pretty blonde rushing into a burning building, but then again she figured that if she had met Gajeel randomly she never would have assumed he was a fire fighter either.

"What're you having tonight, Luce?" Kinana asked, letting the nickname slip easily from her lips.

"I'm picking up the rounds tonight," Lucy sighed and rolled her eyes.

Kinana mock winced, "what'd you do to earn that punishment?"

"Erza beat me in an arm wrestling contest," the blonde mumbled, remembering how she had been coerced into the contest with Cana. It was just meant to be between herself, Cana and Evergreen but Erza had somehow caught wind of the competition and had joined in.

Lucy scowled as she flexed her sore arm, "I was so close to winning as well!"

Kinana laughed loudly, "well what do you need?"

Lucy began reeling off the drinks she needed, some Levy had never even heard of before, and Kinana dutifully wrote them down on her notepad.

"Also, can we have a couple portions of fries please, I'm _starving_, and I know Natsu will eat most of mine anyway," she scowled good naturedly and Kinana once again giggled in understanding.

Levy felt kind of lost and out of place as she watched their exchange take place, quietly sipping her drink.

Once she had finished relaying her order, Lucy pulled out a card and handed it to the friendly barmaid.

"Are you waiting for anyone, Levy?" Lucy asked suddenly as she punched her PIN number into the chip and pin pad Kinana had dug out for her.

Taken aback slightly, Levy shook her head.

"Come sit with us!" Lucy turned to her and grinned, " you seem lonely sitting here all alone. My friends are kinda nuts, but you'll like them!"

Levy blinked in surprise. She wasn't particularly used to people bestowing random acts of kindness upon her, but it seemed to be becoming a more common thing these past few days.

She hesitated before answering. The idea of sitting squashed around a table with people she didn't know was both horrifying and intriguing.

On the one hand, she didn't want it to be awkward, and on the other she realised this was a pretty good way to make friends.

She had already decided that Lucy spent a lot of time in the bar and so she assumed her friends would also.

Befriending the people who used the bar most seemed like a fairly good idea.

"Are you sure?"

Lucy nodded, "definitely!"

Levy nodded hesitantly and the two hopped off their bar stools, with Kinana promising that she'd bring their drinks round to their booth when they were all ready.

"Just a warning," Lucy said as they squeezed themselves through the crowd, "everyone's a bit crazy. But you get used to it."

"Oh," Levy replied lamely, not really knowing what to say.

Lucy laughed, noticing the rather alarmed look on Levy's face.

"Good crazy," she confirmed, "we've been at work all day, so we come to the bar to unwind and let loose, you know?"

"You all work together?"

"Yeah, at the Fire House," Lucy answered.

Levy's mouth fell open slightly, she _knew it_.

"So…," she licked her lips, "you know Gajeel?"

Lucy cackled, "oh boy do I know Gajeel," and Levy found herself laughing as well. Gajeel was definitely a character.

"How do you know him?" Lucy asked, cocking an eyebrow up suspiciously. Gajeel wasn't really one to mingle with people and as far as she knew, the only friend he had who didn't work in the Fire House was Lily.

Levy giggled nervously, "ah, well, I suppose he saved my life."

Lucy's eyebrows vanished into her hairline, "elaborate," she said simply.

They were nearing a booth with six people already seated inside it.

Levy blew a raspberry as she tried to figure out the best way to word it, "I burnt my apartment block down," she said hurriedly, realising that when she said it out loud it seemed utterly ridiculous, "and Gajeel saved me."

Lucy was silent for a few seconds, but Levy noticed the way her eyes were widening.

"Lucy?"

"I knew it!" Lucy suddenly screeched, a look of joy on her face, "I knew it! I knew it!"

"Knew what?" Levy asked frantically, wondering why Lucy looked as if Christmas had come early.

"I knew you sounded familiar!"

Before Levy even had the chance to ask "_huh?_" Lucy grabbed her wrist and dragged her the remaining distance to the booth they were making their way to.

"Guys!" she announced brightly, oblivious to Levy's splutters, "I found her!"

Levy, and the people at the booth each regarded Lucy with a strange look.

"Found who?" a red haired woman wearing a grey jumper asked.

Proudly, Lucy gestured to Levy, "Lasagne Girl!"

Levy sweat dropped.

.

.

.

Gajeel frowned as he aimlessly flicked through the TV channels, unable to find anything that could capture his attention. He was feeling extremely restless.

Sighing in defeat, he settled on a rerun on an old movie, though he turned the volume down so he was simply staring at the images as they flitted across the screen.

He lamely poked at the spaghetti Bolognese he had made for himself, but quickly found he didn't have much of an appetite.

Groaning, he tossed his plate onto the cabinet nearest his couch and reclined into his pillows.

Knowing he had to be at work at 4am the following morning had been pretty good motivation for him not to visit the bar that night.

It was a rare night where he didn't spend his evenings in Fairy Tail. If he wasn't at the bar he was either working or had other arrangements for the night.

Sitting a home aimlessly flicking through channels was a rather foreign concept to him.

In short, Gajeel was _bored_. With each passing second he got the urge to throw on some suitable clothing (as he was simply chilling in a vest and boxers) and make for Fairy Tail. Thankfully, the more rational side of his brain was winning that little argument as it seemed to be very aware of the fact that he would regret the decision when his alarm went off at 3am.

In his bout of extreme boredom he found himself wondering what Levy was up to. And, it wasn't the first time since leaving her earlier that afternoon, that his thoughts had involuntarily drifted towards her small woman.

He had to admit, he had thoroughly enjoyed his impromptu evening with her and he was eagerly awaiting seeing her again. He still wasn't exactly sure what his true feelings were with her, she was certainly the only woman who had truly interested him in the last few years, but he knew himself very well and figured that it was only a matter of time before he eventually tired of her.

Still, that didn't mean he couldn't attempt to enjoy himself whilst the fascination and euphoria of her still lasted.

.

.

.

In her twenty three years of life, Levy had gone through several fairly embarrassing moments.

There was the time when she was seven where she accidentally wet her pants at school.

Or the time when she was thirteen where she had fallen face first into a plate of spaghetti in the school canteen.

Then there was the time when she had been showing off to a guy she quite fancied on a school camping trip and had tried to climb a tree, only succeeding in dropping to the ground after only making it a few feet.

And she definitely wasn't going to forget that Halloween a few years ago where her costume had torn cleanly in two and she was forced to run home clutching torn fabric to her body in an attempt to cover her modesty.

But this?

She was certain that this was the most horrifically embarrassing situation she'd ever been in in her life.

"She's pretty!" a silver haired woman was happily chirping, oblivious to the way Levy's face reddened at the admission.

"Weird hair though," a pink haired man noted.

"Your hair is _pink_ you moron," Lucy huffed as she squeezed herself into the gap next to him, "and Juvia has blue hair, it's perfectly normal!"

"Juvia's hair is darker though, much more natural" Juvia said sagely.

"She doesn't look like Gajeel's usual type," a dark haired man put in, as he scrutinised Levy.

"Gray-sama is so wise!" Juvia cooed.

Kinana passed by then and dropped their drinks down on the table in front of Levy.

"Oy! Lasagne Girl, pass me that bottle!" a brown haired woman barked, pointing at the largest bottle. Wincing at the use of the nickname, Levy silently passed her the bottle.

"Thanks!" she grinned before using the end of the table to take the cap off. Then Levy watched in amazement as she promptly downed the bottle.

"So, you and Gajeel, hm?" a red haired woman asked in such a serious voice that Levy couldn't help but wail in annoyance.

"I barely know him!" she protested, getting rather tired of the way they were flat out ignoring her and discussing her supposed relationship with Gajeel _right in front of her_.

"…yeah, he rescued her from the burning building."

"How romantic!"

"Tch, didn't know he was such a wuss."

"You could take some tips from him!"

"They'll have either very cute or extremely hideous babies."

The silver haired woman said the thing about babies, which left Levy gaping like a fish.

Who were these strange people and why did they apparently have no concept about what was acceptable table conversation for a person you had just met?

"Now, now, Mira," Lucy said quickly, noticing the way Levy was close to slamming her head on the table in defeat, "nobodies talking about babies, don't get carried away!"

"It's always a possibility," the woman, who Levy now noted as Mira, said defensively, though she turned to Levy and smiled kindly at her and Levy felt her previous annoyance slowly ebbing away.

Slowly.

"But does she even liiiiiiiike Gajeel?" the brown haired woman slurred. Levy was alarmed to see that more than half of the bottle she had given her was gone.

"Ok, Cana, no more," the red haired woman said firmly, "you're in with me tomorrow and I'm not going to tolerate any excuses of a hangover."

Cana spat her tongue out teasingly, but obediently put the bottle down and instead stuck her hands out and grabbed a few of Lucy's crisps.

"Hey!" the pink haired man suddenly yelped, "what's your name?"

"Stop being so rude Natsu," Lucy chastised before gasping, "oh! I did forget to introduce you didn't I?"

Levy nodded, "I think you called me Lasagne Girl."

Lucy giggled, "sorry, that's one of the names Gajeel wrote on the report for your fire."

Levy's eye twitched, but she simply nodded, deciding she would have to get her hands on this report one day and permanently destroy it.

"Well, everyone, this is Levy. She lives in the apartment upstairs and is _good _friends with Gajeel," she added slyly, winking at Levy.

Ignoring the angry glare Levy sent her, Lucy proceeded to introduce everyone at the table.

"And you all work at the fire house?" Levy asked when she had finished.

Erza nodded, "Lucy is our receptionist, but the rest of us are fire fighters. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too?" Levy said uncertainly. So far they'd spent the short amount of time together poking fun at her, though she could tell it wasn't done out of ill will.

Mirajane laughed, "we've scared her!"

"I warned you they were crazy," Lucy said, in a tone that clearly said, "I did warn you!"

"Nobody answered my question!" Cana suddenly whined.

Levy glanced at her and saw that the large bottle of alcohol was completely empty.

"Why didn't anyone take it away from her damn it!" Erza hissed as a drunken Cana giggled for no apparent reason.

"Calm down Erza," Gray said lazily, "she'll sober up in a bit, you know she can't stay drunk for long."

"So _wise_," Juvia whispered reverently, (everyone ignored her, except Levy who stared at her in alarm).

"You!" Cana bellowed pointing an accusing finger at Levy, who squealed in shock, "Do. You. Like. Gajeel?"

"W-what?"

"Itsa simple question _peasant!" _

Glancing around the table, Levy was glad to see that she wasn't the only one who looked fairly distressed at Cana's drunken behaviour.

Lucy mouthed the word "sorry" to her as Cana kept ploughing on.

"Answer me!"

"We're friends!" Levy yelled, "just friends!"

"Hm. I see," and then Cana promptly slammed her head into the wooden table and passed out snoring.

"Know your limits damn it," Gray grumbled, poking the snoring Cana with his forefinger, "I'll take her home," he said, standing up.

Levy screamed.

Juvia purred.

Everyone else simply rolled their eyes.

They, unlike Levy, were used to Gray's strange habit of stripping. So when Gray stood up revealing a pair of light blue boxers with snowmen patterns on them, nobody else really batted an eyelid. Levy, on the other hand, wasn't used to having the junk of strange men suddenly thrust in her face, so her reaction was understandable.

"Crap," Gray mumbled, ducking under the table and hoisting his trousers up, "sorry," he said, not sounding very sorry at all.

Levy merely squeaked in answer, still feeling rather shocked at his actions.

Gray moved over to Cana and hoisted an arm under her armpits and tugged her up. She murmured drunkenly and lolled her head on his shoulder.

"Juvia will help!" Juvia suddenly yelped, springing up from her seat to follow Gray and the unconscious Cana out of the bar, "bye guys!"

"Get home safe!" Mira called after them.

"Call me when you're in," Lucy added and Erza nodded in agreement.

"Aw, now I'm the only guy," Natsu grumbled, "you better not start talking about crappy girl things," he warned, yanking the bowl of chips and proceeding to devour them by himself.

Lucy rolled her eyes and whacked him on the arm good naturedly, piquing Levy's interest. Quickly, she turned to Mira and whispered,

"Are they dating?"

Mira's eyes lit up and she waggled her eyebrows mysteriously, "they like to pretend they're not, but…" she trailed off suggestively and nodded in their direction. Lucy had leant back in her seat and Natsu's arm had wound itself around her shoulders. They were both snacking on the bowl of chips, apparently not even noticing the close position they'd put themselves in.

Levy smiled, it was cute.

She wondered briefly if that was how she appeared with Gajeel. Were they flirtatious with each other without even noticing? She dismissed the notion immediately, she most certainly _did not _flirt with Gajeel.

They were strictly friends.

"What do you think of Gajeel?" Erza suddenly asked, interrupting Levy's thoughts. That got everyone's attention, and soon she found every staring at her suspiciously.

"I…I don't know? He's a jerk sometimes," she replied honestly, "but he's kind deep down."

"Deep, _deeeeeep_, down," Mira mumbled with a smirk.

Erza hummed to herself, "it's not often Gajeel takes interest in a woman," she said bluntly, causing Levy to splutter in shock.

Did these people really have no sense of what was appropriate conversation?

"But I approve of you," she finished, before picking up her glass and sipping her drink, "however, if he hurts you, just come to me. I will deal with him appropriately."

Levy found that she didn't have the energy to argue. She simply nodded, wondering what the hell she had gotten herself into by deciding to leave the safety of her bedroom that evening.

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**A/N: HAPPY NEW YEAR! **22 DAYS LATE, but I thought I should say it anyway! I hope you all had good holidays ^_^ Sorry this is so extremely delayed, I had assessments and coursework due at university so that sort of took priority. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I forgot just how much I love writing the rest of the Fairy Tail cast, they're so funny!

I don't think I've said thank you to everyone that's reviewed so far but THANK YOU for reviewing especially the ones who review every chapter, I DO SEE YOU AND YOU MAKE ME SO HAPPY, thank you for being patient with my sporadic updates and just thank you for pushing me to write more, you're all fabulous!

Please review guys xoxox


	10. Chapter 10

Smokin' Hot

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?", and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."

**10; **The Date

Levy bit her bottom lip and reached an arm out, only to tug it back and drop it to her side almost immediately.

She stood with a white fluffy towel clasped close to her chest, staring dismally at her open wardrobe. If someone had been watching the scene it is quite likely they would have assumed Levy had gone insane, for she had been standing like this for at least half an hour now.

And Levy would have been inclined to believe them.

She _was_ going insane, and it was all Gajeel's fault.

A full week had passed since she moved into the apartment above the Fairy Tail bar and she was rather surprised to admit it, but she had found herself falling into a routine. She would wake up in the morning and go about her business, whether that be shopping for necessities for her apartment, or visiting her parents. She found she liked this new sense of freedom she had, but was cautious not to get too used to it as next week she was due to return back to work.

She would return home later, make herself dinner and then either spend the night reading, watching television, or venture downstairs to mingle with her noisy neighbours.

She had gone downstairs three times since moving in and, barring the horrendously embarrassing first evening, had enjoyed herself very much.

The second night she had been brave enough to slip downstairs she had spent the evening chatting with Lucy about books. Much to Levy's delight, Lucy had a passion for books that rivalled her own and the blonde had drunkenly let it slip that she was attempting to write her own novel. Levy, being mostly sober, managed to convince the tipsy Lucy to let her be the first to read it once it was complete. Natsu had joined them briefly, but quickly disappeared when he realised the conversation wasn't suited to his tastes. Levy giggled as she remembered how he had blown a raspberry in boredom before dashing off and challenging Laxus to a duel. The man in question had just entered the bar and simply brushed Natsu away barely sparing him a glance.

She didn't go to the bar the next night, deciding she wanted an early night but she did visit again on Tuesday evening.

Gajeel had been there that night.

They spent a few minutes bickering as usual before they both migrated towards a booth that already held Juvia and a woman with short silver hair Levy hadn't met before. She soon learned that she was Mirajane's younger sister, Lisanna. Lisanna didn't work at the fire house but due to her older siblings commitments to the place, Fairy Tail had become her after work haunt as well. Gajeel and Levy had joined the pair and engaged in a rather enjoyable conversation about Gray's buttocks (the verdict was that Gray had a very nice butt). For some reason, Gajeel was also strangely involved in the conversation and Levy got the distinct impression that Juvia had subjected him to it before.

Not long after that Lucy arrived with Mirajane and Gajeel announced that he needed to get going. Levy had felt a little put out at that, she enjoyed spending time with him.

Gajeel jumped out of the booth and walked away, but came rushing back quickly.

"Oy, short stuff?"

"I have a name, Gajeel," she had huffed in answer.

"Yeah yeah, are you free tomorrow night?"

She had cocked her head to the side in confusion, "I…I guess so, why?"

"I promised you I'd take you out, right?"

She had spluttered and stammered and blushed but Gajeel ignored her and ploughed on.

"So, I'll pick you up at about 8ish. See ya."

And with that he was gone.

Leaving Levy red faced and in the middle of four squealing women.

"It's a date," Lucy had said wisely after she had gotten out all her squeals of excitement. Her statement earned vigorous nods from both Mira and Lisanna.

Juvia had simply stared at her peculiarly, but said nothing.

Levy had shaken her head wildly and told them they were all out of their minds. To her dismay, they all agreed to that statement saying something like "you need to be a little insane to work in our firehouse" but they simply wouldn't budge on the idea of her meal with Gajeel being a date.

And, as she stared at her wardrobe full of clothes, she couldn't help but wonder if they were right.

The only male friends she really had were Jet and Droy and she'd gone to dinner with both of them before and it had never seemed to be such a big deal.

She'd certainly never made such a fuss over her outfit or hair whenever they had invited her out to eat.

But the idea of going out with Gajeel had rendered her immobile. She had been staring worriedly at her wardrobe for so long and had yet to even tug down one dress to try on.

She grimaced as she took a tentative step towards the daunting wardrobe, knowing just what Lucy and the others would say if they could see her.

"_If it's not a date why are you putting so much effort in?"_

It annoyed her that she couldn't figure out an answer to the imaginary Lucy in her mind.

Why the heck was she putting so much effort in? She was fairly certain that there was no way Gajeel would bother putting so much effort into his own appearance. She snorted to herself as she imagined Gajeel turning up at her door in a pair of old sweatpants and a jumper and decided that she wouldn't put it past him.

He was very unpredictable.

Gajeel had remained oddly tight lipped about where they would be going out to eat meaning she had no real idea on what type of clothes to wear.

Did she go for street casual?

Smart casual?

Elegant?

Fancy?

"_Idiot_ Gajeel!" Levy hissed deciding that he had refused to tell her where they were going on purpose. It was just like him to find some strange way to torture her after all.

"Why did I even agree to this," she mumbled forlornly as she half heartedly began to flick through her wardrobe. Once again, her imaginary Lucy popped up and answered her question,

"_Because you liiiiiike him_," imaginary Lucy trilled, much to Levy's annoyance.

Mainly, because she was right.

She liked Gajeel, and the thought terrified her. There was no way she was ready to jump back into the dating game so soon after being dumped by David, but for some reason her heart refused to listen to her brain and was only too eager for her to get close to Gajeel.

Thankfully, her brain seemed to be winning their little battle, but she wondered how long that would last for.

It had been a very long time since a man had evoked such strange emotions in her. She couldn't even remember the last time her heart had fluttered even a little bit for David.

Gajeel was handsome in a strange way she never would have believed she would ever find attractive. He was kind, though had very roundabout way of showing it, intelligent, and witty. Though they spent the majority of their time bickering childishly, Levy realised she had never felt bored or awkward around him. He had a knack of knowing how to keep the conversation going, even if it meant poking fun at himself, and she appreciated that.

It was nice to finally spend some time around someone who wasn't afraid to act a bit silly to get a laugh from her, or someone who didn't mind speaking his mind even if it wasn't what Levy wanted to hear.

He was honest.

She blinked as she realised she had figured _it _out. All this time she had been wondering just what it was about Gajeel that had caused this peculiar attraction to develop.

It was his honesty.

He might've been blunt, rude, and a plain jerk sometimes, but he was unequivocally honest about it. He didn't attempt to hide or sugar coat his real feelings, he left it out in the open for everyone to see.

She smiled lightly, this time walking with more determination and confidence to her wardrobe.

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.

.

"What are you planning with her?" Lily asked innocently as they pulled up in front of his apartment complex.

"Huh?"

The pair had been out at the gym for the majority of the day and Lily had noticed that Gajeel's mind had been elsewhere throughout the day. In one way, Lily liked an absentminded Gajeel, it meant it was easier to get a few punches in when they sparred. But it also meant that he was in a foul temper when a punch to the face knocked some sense into him for a few minutes.

"What are your plans for Miss McGarden?"

Gajeel rolled his eyes at his friend, "why the hell do you have to speak like that?"

"Like what?"

"So…so proper. Like calling her Miss McGarden. It's annoying. Her name's Levy."

"Oh, you can give her an unlimited array of ridiculous nicknames, but I can't call her by a polite and correct title?"

"Exactly. I'm glad you understand."

Lily shook his head and sighed, "you're very possessive, you know that right?"

Gajeel smirked, "I know what I want. Is there anything wrong with that?"

"Ah, so you admit you want Miss McGarden then?"

Gajeel scowled, Lily had a habit of squeezing out the information he wanted to hear from Gajeel without Gajeel even noticing. He often joked that Lily would do well as an interrogator, he had a special talent in that respect.

However, it was annoying.

"You're annoying," Gajeel muttered angrily, "stop trying to get into my mind and leave it already."

Lily mimicked Gajeel's scowl. Being friends with the stubborn man was the reason for his few gray hairs, he was sure of it. They'd been friends since their late teens years and Lily had long since learnt that Gajeel never liked admitting that Lily knew him better than he knew himself.

"You clearly like Miss McGarden, and judging by her actually agreeing to go out with you tonight, I'd say it would be a fair bet to say she likes you as well."

Despite himself, Gajeel couldn't help but smirk happily at that. It boosted his already slightly inflated ego to know that even Lily thought there was a high chance that Levy liked him.

"Yeah, what're you getting at?"

"If you both like each other," Lily said slowly, "then the next logical step would be for you two to form a relationship. And you, Gajeel, are not very good with relationships."

"I'm plenty good with relationships!"

Lily simply raised an eyebrow and said, "Sue."

"Ah."

Sue had been in Gajeel's team at the firehouse he had worked at before and had so far been Gajeel's only real relationship - if you don't count his fairly impressive list of one night stands.

To say that Sue now hated his guts and wouldn't hesitate to leave him crippled in a burning building would have been a fairly accurate description of the woman's current feelings for him.

"Ah well, she was always a psycho," Gajeel said flippantly, wincing as he remembered the woman, "no idea why I even agreed to date her."

"Because she _wasn't _always a psycho," Lily countered, remembering how endearing Sue had been when he had first met her, "however, two months of dating you soon changed that. I seem to recall her chasing you down the road with a whisk, screaming obscenities by the time you broke up."

"Exactly! Complete psycho through no fault of my own," Gajeel said, refusing to accept the blame for his ex-girlfriends quick descent into madness, "I got out lucky."

Lily tittered, "I bet she would say otherwise. Anyway," he said hurriedly, noting that Gajeel was gearing himself up to argue with him once again, "lets move away from your failed romantic relationships."

"Hey-"

"Your platonic relationships are also very…shall we say unique?"

There was a pause for a few moments as Gajeel considered his words.

"Huh?"

"Aside from those you've managed to strike up a, and face it, dysfunctional friendship with at the firehouse, I am your sole friend. And even our relationship isn't very conventional."

"I don't understand your point. Speak plainly for once."

Lily sighed and did his best to ignore the dull throbbing he could feel in his temple.

"_What _I am saying is this. Your usual approach to making friends is to insult the hell out of them and hope they're thick skinned enough to take it and understand you aren't truly trying to offend them. Now, whilst Miss McGarden has shown a remarkable talent of being able to adapt to your strange hazing process in such a short amount of time, _if _you decide to take things more seriously with the young woman, I would recommend you rethink the way you treat her. There's only so much bickering anyone can take before they begin to tire. Show her another side to Gajeel."

The pair sat in silence for a while as Gajeel attempted to slowly digest Lily's words.

"You're a real pussy sometimes, you know that right?"

Lily simply laughed, knowing that that was a close as Gajeel was going to get to admitting that he was right.

.

.

.

Levy stared at her reflection in the mirror critically. She had opted for a dark blue thigh length, halter neck type dress with no sleeves. The dress was a tiny bit too small for her so it clung tightly to her slim frame. Fearing that it was perhaps a little bit too short she had donned a pair of black tights and had a pair of ankle high black boots waiting for her by the door. For a change, she had experimented with her hair and instead of leaving it down like she usually did, she had combed the short locks upwards and captured them, pulling them into a loose bun that rested precariously at the top of her head. A few stray strands broke free and fell across her face, framing it. She wore a pair of simple flower earrings and a few bracelets on her wrist.

"Am I overdressed?" she wondered as she twisted around so she could get a better look at her back, "or maybe underdressed?" Not knowing where they were going was really annoying, but she hoped she had done alright.

She ended up choosing the dark blue number because she figured it wouldn't be entirely out of place if Gajeel had truly gone insane and just took her to a fish and chip shop to eat, and, if he was feeling a little romantic and took her to an expensive restaurant she decided she would also be able to blend in easily.

She hoped.

Nodding to herself in satisfaction, she grabbed her small purse from her bed and disappeared into her living room to wait for Gajeel. He promised to pick her up at "8-ish" and it was currently 8.03 making her wonder what his idea of "ish" was. She really hoped it fell more to the earlier side of the 8 o'clock hour as opposed to the other side.

She felt very nervous, and as much as she had tried to dispel her nerves about the evening she had ahead of her, she hadn't quite managed to succeed. It felt as if there were several hundred butterflies fluttering around in her stomach.

As much as she tried to deny that tonight was a date, the butterflies in her stomach were enough to convince her that she was wrong.

This was a _date_.

With Gajeel.

She swallowed thickly and sunk into her couch, trying to still her beating heart. This was all too much and it was happening way too fast. She was sure that she was meant to spend at least a month crying and moping about David, and yet here she was, barely two weeks after their break up getting ready to go off on a date with a new man.

And the strangest thing was, she barely felt any pang of sadness for David anymore. That startled her. She had spent a year of her life with him and she had truly believed she was in love.

"Maybe I was wrong," she muttered as she thought of David, "naïve."

A loud thudding on her door interrupted her reverie.

"Oy, oy. Shrimp!"

Despite his annoying choice of nickname, Levy couldn't help but smirk as Gajeel's gruff voice floated through the wooden door.

He knocked three more times before Levy reached the door and unlocked it.

"Jeez, are you always this impatient?"

Gajeel smirked, leaning casually against her doorframe, "sometimes."

Levy blinked several times and, much to Gajeel's amusement, didn't seem to notice that she was staring with an open mouth as she checked him out.

"You…um," she licked her lips subconsciously, "you look nice," she squeaked out.

Gajeel's smirk widened.

He hadn't dressed up too much for the occasion, but Levy could see he had made an effort to look good and it definitely worked.

He wore a simple pair of black pants that were tucked into a pair of shiny workman's boots. On top he wore a plain white short sleeved t-shirt that clung to his upper arms wonderfully, giving her ample view of his muscles. Until that day she had never realised that she was attracted to muscles, David had only been subtly toned, but as she stared at the rippling ones on Gajeel's arms she had to admit she was definitely a fan.

But it wasn't his casual, smart look that had rendered her so surprised.

It was his hair.

Whenever she had seen him previously, his hair had been an untamed mess. She thought she quite liked it before, as it suited his rough demeanour and she hadn't expected him to do anything else with it.

As she stared at the damp black locks pulled backwards into loose ponytail she had to physically fight off the urge to purr.

A few wild hairs fell forward like usual, giving him that mildly unkempt look he seemed to like going for.

He looked like a God.

She felt weak and immediately conscience about her own choice of outfit. Standing next to him looking so attractive, she was sure she would only look even more insignificant.

She needn't have worried, for as she was staring at Gajeel, he was also taking the opportunity to stare at her.

And judging by the soft smirk on his face, he liked what he saw.

"So!" Levy suddenly yelped, forcing her eyes away from his chest, "where are we going?"

She ducked her head a little, trying to hide her obviously red face.

"Ah, that's a surprise."

"Still?"

Gajeel shrugged mischievously as Levy scowled up at him but reluctantly slipped her feet into her boots.

"Ladies first," he said, pretending to bow in a gentlemanly fashion. Arching her eyebrow, Levy slipped past him and began walking down the corridor, giving Gajeel a lovely view of her bottom.

His smirked widened as they walked down the corridor.

The night was off to a wonderful start.

.

.

.

"Where are we?" she asked curiously as Gajeel parked up in front of an expensive looking apartment complex. He was still refusing to tell her exactly where they were going and what they were doing, but she decided that since he had parked up they must've reached their destination.

"My home," he replied easily, "I live up there," he pointed to the top floor of one of the towers."

Levy felt her heartbeat begin to quicken immediately, "your _house_?" she all but screeched, "I thought we were going to a restaurant? You can't take me home on the first date! What do you think I am?"

Unperturbed by her cries, Gajeel cocked an eyebrow and fixed her with a smug look, "I thought this wasn't a date?"

She paused.

Gajeel laughed.

"Well? I seem to remember you being very determined that this was a "just friends" kind of thing."

Levy glared at him, knowing that he was right.

"So," he whistled innocently, "which is it? A date? Or are we just friends?"

She whimpered quietly, feeling entirely too much like a mouse who had just been cornered by a hungry cat.

"Shrimp?"

"I…I don't know!" she snapped, "you're always pressurising me! Why do we even have to put labels on everything, can't we just have fun and see where it goes?"

Gajeel lips curled upwards into a predatory grin, "I'm all for having some fun…"

"You're so crass," Levy mumbled earning herself a roar of laughter from Gajeel. Having successfully diverted his attention away from his previously unanswered question, Levy asked another question that was on her mind.

"What _are _we doing at your home," she asked, staring at him determinedly, "I thought we were going to a restaurant."

Gajeel made a "pfft" sort of noise and waved an airy hand in the air, "nah, why pay all that money for mediocre restaurant food when I can cook up something ten times as good in the comfort of my own home."

Levy's eyebrows shot upwards at his words, "you're…you…are going to cook? For me?"

"I told you I can cook didn't I?"

She nodded reluctantly, remembering very clearly that how he had mocked the way she had burned lasagne that fateful night not so long ago.

"I've just never had a guy cook for me before," she admitted quietly, doing her best to ignore the tugging feeling she felt in her heart. Whenever David and herself had had dates they would go to restaurants or they ordered take out. The one time she had attempted cooking for them, it had gone horribly disastrous. Not even Jet or Droy had offered to cook for her before. The whole concept was foreign to her.

Gajeel tittered, but said nothing. Opting not to voice his opinion on the few men Levy had had in her life previously.

"Let's go then," he said instead, "I'm starving."

He hopped out of his car and Levy followed cautiously, still feeling wary about following him into his home.

It wasn't that she didn't trust Gajeel. To not trust the man who pulled you out of a burning building would have been quite absurd. It was simply that she wasn't used to acting like this. She had never been the girl who all the boys lusted after in high school, she had never been the girl to go out clubbing every night at university. She was quite happy to sit at home with her books and a box of chocolates to keep her company. David had been her first relationship and even that hadn't started until she was 22. On the topic of men and dating, it was fairly safe to say that Levy was way out of her comfort zone. She didn't know what was acceptable or what was supposed to be done on a first date at all.

Still feeling rather nervous, she peered up at Gajeel as they walked through the reception area of his apartment complex and moved towards the elevator. If he was feeling as nervous as she was, then he was doing a very good job of keeping his nerves hidden.

She briefly wondered how many girls he had brought up to his apartment before, but quickly shoved the idea right out of her mind.

She did _not _want to think about that. Ever.

"Why so quiet, short stuff?"

Startled, she whipped her head around and realised they were standing in the elevator and it was slowly ascending.

"Sorry?" she said bashfully, "I'm just, a bit nervous," she bit her bottom lip and leant against the wall sighing gently.

Gajeel frowned, "why? We spent the whole day together the other day, what's the difference?"

Levy merely shook her head and smiled up at him. To Gajeel, this just wasn't a big deal. She wasn't even sure if he considered it to be a date.

"Nothing, nothing," she said brightly as the elevator jolted to a halt and opened up to a spacious white corridor, "hurry up then, I am _starving," _she skipped out of the elevator with Gajeel hot on her heels, grumbling something about "crazy blue haired women".

Levy blissfully ignored his comments.

They walked down the corridor till the very end when Gajeel finally stuck an arm out , ordering Levy to stop walking.

"Number 190," she read as she watched him insert his key into the door and push it open.

"After you," he said, swiping his arm into his apartment to let Levy enter first. She found herself blushing as she he did that. She was sure she was imagining the predatory look in his eyes and she was certain she was imagining the way he licked his lips almost imperceptibly as he briefly looked her up and down.

Cursing her overactive imagination, she ducked past him and entered his home.

She had to admit, she was impressed. His home was very nice and modern. She wasn't sure why, but she had been expecting him to live in a dump. She couldn't imagine Gajeel diligently running around the apartment with a mop and broom every week, but it was clear that he did. Aside from a few magazines and loose articles of clothing slung haphazardly over chairs there wasn't anything out of place. She followed him as he wandered into the kitchen.

"What are we cooking?" she asked, peering over his shoulder to find that his countertop was full of plastic shopping bags containing uncooked food.

Gajeel snorted, "we?"

Feigning hurt, Levy placed her hands on her hips, "of course, I can't let you do all of the work. You'll never stop bragging about it."

"True," he conceded, "but the last time you attempted to cook a meal I seem to recall having to rescue you from a burning building. Since I don't really feel like losing my home today…," he clamped down on her shoulders and turned her around, "_out_. Snoop around my house or something, I'll call you when I'm ready."

She barely had time to gasp out in surprise before he had thrown her out of the kitchen and slammed the door behind her.

"You are ridiculous!" she yelled, punching half heartedly on the closed door behind her. From behind it, she could hear Gajeel chuckling at her predicament. She huffed a few times before deciding it was probably for the best. Chances were, that if she did get involved in the cooking of their meal, it would inevitably end up as a charcoaled disaster by the time they were through.

Besides, she was quite interested to see whether Gajeel could live up to his self professed cooking hype.

Deciding to take his advice, she moved away from the kitchen door and began to wander curiously around his apartment.

On any normal occasion she wouldn't have been so quick to snoop around somebody's home but since Gajeel had specifically told her to go "snooping", she couldn't really feel all that guilty about it.

She cautiously opened one door and found it led to a bathroom.

It was spotless. Shiny. Clean.

She was amazed.

Jet and Droy's bathroom were always an absolute mess.

Smiling lightly to herself, she closed the bathroom door and walked down the corridor. Her opinion of Gajeel was rapidly rising.

He was a neat freak.

The phrase made her laugh aloud and she wondered how many of his friends knew how clean he kept his home. It was an admirable trait, but it seemed to odd to associate the word tidiness with Gajeel.

As she walked through his corridor she heard the distinct sound of him pulling pots and pans out of his cupboards, whilst loudly humming along to something.

The fact that he was currently cooking a meal for her was also rather shocking.

The phrase "never judge a book by its cover" had never seemed so poignant to her.

With Gajeel still humming away happily in the kitchen she felt confident enough to continue with her snooping.

The door she opened next revealed itself to be a small built in closet full of grey towels. She frowned as she stared at them all. Gajeel seemed to have a bit of an obsession with the colour grey.

The next room she entered was a storage room she assumed. It was packed with cardboard boxes, and crates and several broken TV's. Deciding not to question the abundance of broken TV's she closed the door and moved to the final door she had not touched.

Knowing it would be his bedroom her cheeks reddened and she shook her head.

"Not the bedroom," she mumbled to herself, doing a quick u-turn before scurrying off back into the living room area of his apartment.

It was as if staring at his bedroom door had opened the floodgates in her mind, and instantly all sorts of scenarios began seeping in.

She was pretty embarrassed to admit that some of them weren't entirely appropriate.

Face still strawberry red, she re-entered his living room and looked around for something to distract herself with.

She decided then and there that it was a "boys" apartment totally. A large widescreen TV was hung against a wall, with an expensive looking surround sound system placed next to it. A row of photographs on the mantelpiece caught her eye.

There weren't that many, and, as far as she could tell, they were the only photographs in the apartment. The walls were bare, save for one intricate painting of a metallic dragon. Curiously, she picked up the first photo frame and smiled. In it was a younger looking Gajeel with his arm draped casually around a younger looking Lily's shoulders. The two were shirtless and each had boxing gloves on their visible arms. She giggled as she noticed Gajeel had a gash above his left eye and imagined Lily punching him square in the face. She placed the frame back in its original place and picked up the one next to it. This one was a photograph of him and the rest of the firehouse. He was standing to the back, scowling at something she couldn't quite see. Putting down that photo, she picked up the last one on the mantelpiece and frowned.

A tiny boy with scraggy black hair sat on top of a mans shoulders. The man was smirking in a manner that was fairly familiar to her. The photograph was charred slightly on the corners and had clearly been torn down the middle as a strip of cello tape ran down it.

"Hey, Gajeel?" she called loudly, knowing he could hear her from the kitchen. After a few seconds the humming stopped, the door was pulled open and Gajeel stepped out.

"Yeah?"

Her question fell from her lips as she gaped at the man standing in front of her.

"What are you wearing?" she laughed hysterically, clutching her ribs. Gajeel's face reddened as he looked down and realised he had forgotten to take off the light yellow apron he was wearing. The apron was that funny, if you ignored the large pink printed letters that read KISS THE COOK with fat, puckered red lips stitched on underneath it.

"Juvia got it for me damn it," he growled, "stop laughing!"

Her shoulders shook as he fought to untie the apron and chuck it roughly behind him.

"What'd you call me for?"

Still giggling lightly, she held up the photograph, "who's this?"

"My old man," Gajeel replied in a clipped tone of voice.

"Oh. But I-"

"He left when I was about 7," he shrugged, "dunno where he went, or why."

Levy carefully placed the photograph back on the mantelpiece and took a step backwards, "I'm sorry."

He shrugged, "it's not a big deal really. People will leave you, that's the harsh reality of life."

He ventured back into the kitchen, leaving Levy to think about his rather sad words. Aside from the photo of Lily and the one of the firehouse, there were no other photo's to decorate his apartment. No other memories of happier times.

Her heart began to ache a little bit.

She wondered for how long he had been so lonely.

Feeling a little dejected, she moved to his couch and plopped down onto it.

His words hit a sore spot in her own mind. She liked to believe she had a fairly optimistic outlook on life, but recent events had dampened her usually positive outlook.

His words rang true in her mind.

"_People will leave you, that's the harsh reality of life"._

David had left her.

She sighed, wiping her eyes to prevent tears as she sunk further into the couch. Did that mean Gajeel would leave her as well?

Imaginary Lucy popped into her mind once, with a sly grin on her imaginary face.

_Leave you? I didn't know you were together_, Imaginary Lucy sung, much to Levy's displeasure. Mentally, she swatted Imaginary Lucy away and groaned.

Once again, she was right.

Gajeel wasn't hers. At best, they were friends, but she still had no real claim to him. Worrying about whether he would leave her or not wasn't really something she had the right to do.

She frowned.

She found herself wanting that right.

Just as her feelings were beginning to confuse her even more than usual, the door to the kitchen was thrown open and Gajeel walked out slowly.

Almost immediately sweet smells wafted into her nose and she had to physically fight the urge not to groan aloud in anticipation.

"Dinner's ready," he said as he approached her.

Her mouth began to water as he brought out a tray of food and settled it down on the coffee table in front of her. Two bowls of yellow rice and two plates of a delicious looking chicken sat on the tray, along with several small tubs of sauces. If she hadn't personally known he was slaving away in the kitchen for the last hour, she would never had believed he made it himself.

"Be back in a sec," he grunted, before disappearing back into the kitchen. As he went away she slid off the sofa and onto her knees so she could sit around the coffee table and eat with ease. She inhaled deeply and sighed.

It smelt amazing.

Gajeel returned, holding two empty glasses and one bottle of wine. He placed them on the coffee table and then settled himself down on the floor next to Levy.

"This looks delicious," she admitted weakly, doing her best to stop from clawing wildly at the tantalising food in front of her.

"Taste's delicious too," he said cockily, reaching for a knife and fork, prompting her to do the same. Eagerly she copied him and picked up her own cutlery, happily tucking into the meal before her.

"This tastes amazing," she murmured, after swallowing a mouthful of rice, "how did you learn to cook like this?"

Chewing his food thoughtfully, he reached over the coffee table and poured some of the wine into each of the glasses. He passed one to Levy and took a sip of his own before he answered the question.

"I guess," he said slowly, "I guess I had a lot of spare time when I was younger. I already told you I wasn't really all that bothered with school, right?"

She nodded, cutting up a piece of chicken and tossing it in her mouth. The resultant explosion of flavour in her mouth almost made her eyes roll. _How was it possible for anyone to be that talented? _

"Well, when I wasn't being a nuisance to the community, I spent a lot of time cooking. I realised pretty young that I'd have to take care of myself a lot, knowing how to cook a decent meal seemed pretty logical to me."

"This goes above and beyond the description for a decent meal," Levy gushed, dipping a piece of the chicken into one of the sauce pots.

Gajeel chuckled, "I've been practising for over a decade, if my skills didn't improve I'd be worried."

She giggled, "fair enough. You'll have to teach me one of these days."

"Someone should've taught you a long time ago," he sighed, "preferably before you burnt down your home."

Levy stuck her tongue out good naturedly, well used to his way of teasing her, "believe me, my mother has tried with all her might to teach me. The fact that neither me or my sister can cook brings her a lot of pain, she tells us. She's going to absolutely love you!"

Neither either noticed, or wanted to comment on the fact that Levy's choice of wording implied that he would definitely be meeting her mother one day.

"She's a chef," Levy clarified in between mouthfuls, she then hesitated for only a second before reaching out and grabbing the glass of wine Gajeel had poured for her earlier. She sipped it slowly, the taste wasn't too strong, something she was grateful for.

She found herself relaxing with each passing second and judging by the easy grin on Gajeel's face, he too was enjoying her company.

They spoke about everything. From Levy's job, to Gajeel's lack of friends, to what their favourite movies were to what their most embarrassing memory was.

Levy's ribs had actually ached when Gajeel revealed the time Lily had stolen his clothes after a gym session and he was forced to walk home in only a towel.

For the first time in a very long while, Levy felt complete free from any problems in her life.

Before she knew it, it was nearing 1am.

"Oh," she gasped, blinking at the bright figures on Gajeel's stereo, "is that the time?"

After dinner they had migrated back to the couch to finish talking. Gajeel wasn't sure if she knew what she was doing but she had curled up onto the couch, tucking her feet beneath her bottom and was leaning heavily into his side.

He saw no need to complain and deftly placed his arm around her back.

Gajeel frowned as he finally noticed the time. He hadn't known it was so late. Time seemed to speed up when he was with Levy.

"Come on, Shorty," he grunted, poking her roughly in the shoulder, "I'll take you home."

Swaying slightly due to the wine, she sat up and puckered her lips and eyebrows at him, "I should hope so!" she huffed before springing up from the couch to find her boots.

Gajeel rolled his eyes and glanced at the still half full bottle of wine. He smirked as the knowledge that Levy was a lightweight hit him. It fit her.

.

.

.

She was oddly quiet on the drive home, but Gajeel tried not to see that as a bad thing, opting to put her sudden silence down to tiredness and the small amount of alcohol she had in her. The bar was still fairly alive when they arrived, but, to his pleasure, nobody seemed that interested in them when they arrived.

Makarov quirked an eyebrow up at them as they walked past, but said nothing. Cana drunkenly mumbled something about "looooovebirds" but Gajeel ignored it, and Levy appeared to be asleep on her feet.

He was beginning to wonder if he should carry her up to her room, she was moving at such a glacial pace.

"Hurry up," he grumbled as she slowly made her way up the staircase.

"Shush," she replied with a smile, "I know you're looking at my butt anyway!"

He didn't have a retort for that. Mainly, because it was true, and also because he hadn't realised she had even noticed.

He did note that she didn't seem to be complaining and he wondered if she was slightly more intoxicated than he thought.

She began humming quietly to herself as she fished through her purse for her keys. He watched, slightly amused as she fumbled with putting her keys into the keyhole.

"You're a lightweight, Shrimp."

"You were trying to get me drunk!" she accused, still with the same sleepy smile on her face.

"You had less than half a bottle of wine," he deadpanned as she finally managed to thrust the door open.

She whirled around and shrugged, before opening her mouth and closing it really quickly. She bit her lip and beckoned him closer.

Frowning, he stepped forward until he was standing right before her.

"Gajeel?" she muttered, still with her eyes downcast, and Gajeel noticed a distinct red tinge on her cheeks.

"What?"

"Thank you," she said quietly, smiling up at him. Quickly, before he had the chance to say anything that could possibly ruin the mood, she stood up on her tiptoes and pressed a quick, chaste, kiss against his lips, "this was a nice date."

And with that, she disappeared into her apartment, leaving Gajeel standing silently outside. It took him a few minutes to recover from her impromptu kiss. He had definitely not been expecting it. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he turned away from her door and began making his way downstairs.

It wasn't until he finally reached his car and was about to pull away did he realise what she had said.

She had finally admitted it was a date.

Gajeel grinned.

.

.

.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Hellooooo, slightly longer than usual this time I hope you're happy! Did you like the chapter? Review if you did, review if you didn't!

For anyone wondering, Sue was an _anime only _character created for the Phantom Lord Arc I believe. She was one of Gajeel's subordinates and thus worked with him closely. So I gave her the role of ex-girlfriend in this fic, she's not just a random woman! Just in case you don't watch the FT anime and only read the manga!

A few people have asked if Jet & Droy will be making an actual appearance in this fic, and the answer is: yes. Of course! I love them both, so they'll both be popping up soon. Also….David. David will be cropping up again eventually muhahahahaha!

Please review, thank you xoxo


	11. Chapter 11

Smokin' Hot

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?", and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."

**11; **Best Friends

Jet and Droy had been friends with Levy since they met in nursery school.

Or, it would be more accurate to say that Jet and Droy had become utterly infatuated with Levy since they met in nursery school. Levy had been happily playing by herself with the dollhouse and Jet and Droy had been play fighting as only young boys know how to do best.

A combination of sheer clumsiness and an untied shoelace resulted in Droy being slammed backwards into Levy's dollhouse, crushing it to smithereens.

Both Jet and Droy were at the age where girls were unequivocally gross to them. However, once Levy's big brown eyes began to water and her puffy lips began to quiver their opinion quickly changed.

From that day on, Jet and Droy became Jet, Droy and Levy. And not very much had changed between them in the twenty or so years since that fateful day.

To say that the two men had developed crushes on Levy throughout the years would have been a bit of an understatement. From that day on they both seemed determined to somehow make Levy fall passionately in love with them.

It wasn't till they hit the age of 16 that they realised it was never going to happen.

Levy loved them but only as brothers.

The realisation had been a sad one for the two friends, but they got over it quick enough, deciding that if they couldn't look after Levy as a romantic partner, than they would do it as brothers.

They would spend the next few years of their lives glaring at boys they deemed unworthy (aka every boy in the world) to keep them away from her and it worked.

Until she met David.

Much to their annoyance, they were unable to find a single fault with David. In every sense of the word, he was perfect. Reluctantly, they handed their "protecting Levy" duties over to him, trusting that he would do a good job.

Thankfully, he appeared to do a wonderful job as neither man had received any indication that Levy was unhappy with her newfound relationship.

And so, when a business opportunity cropped up for the two which involved them spending a few months on the other side of the world, they felt relatively happy with leaving Levy in David's care.

Throughout the first few months of their trip, Levy would phone them every week just to catch up and let them know that everything was ok.

For some strange reason, halfway into their third month abroad, the phone calls abruptly stopped. They tried contacting her several times but would always be put through straight to answer machine.

Now, being mature and rational men Jet and Droy tried hard not to panic.

They really did.

Unfortunately they failed.

With no means of contacting her parents or Levy herself, the two cut short their trip and booked tickets back to Fiore almost immediately.

It may have seemed like a bit of an overreaction on their part, but in their years together they had become extremely attached to Levy and doted on her wherever possible.

Fearing the worst, they boarded the plane and as soon as it landed made a beeline to Levy's apartment.

"Jet…" Droy had muttered in astonishment.

"Droy…" Jet had gasped in shock and they stared up at the blackened and charcoaled square right where Levy's apartment should have been.

"_Leeeevvyyyyy_" they had both wailed in anguish.

.

.

.

Greg McGarden loved his garden. It was his own little sanctuary, his own plot of the world where he could reign free. It was the only place where he could sit back and relax in complete peace and quiet.

A desperate, and extremely loud, wail of anguish interrupted his musings. Loud thuds on his front door followed the wailing.

Frowning, he pushed himself up from his comfortable lawn chair and quickly made his way back into his home to find out just who it was that seemed so determined to interrupt his rare few moments of serenity.

"Mr _McGardeeeeeeeen_," Jet howled.

"_Levvvvyyyyy? Where is she?" _Droy sniffed with frantic eyes, "her apartment's gone! It's burnt down! Is she ok? Where is she? Why didn't she tell us! Wh-"

Used to the way the two men acted in regards to his eldest daughter, Greg simply rolled his eyes and step aside, allowing them to enter his home.

Although their rather obsessive behaviour had the tendency to fall onto the "you're being annoying" side of things, Greg had always been secretly glad that Levy had befriended the two. They cared for each other like they were family and he knew they would always protect each other. Which is why, although their reaction was annoying, he wasn't too surprised by it.

Greg led them into the living room and settled himself into his armchair whilst he waited for them to cease with their hysterics. It took a few minutes for them to calm down enough for Greg to get a word in edgeways.

"So boys," he said jovially, pretending to ignore their woeful looks, "how was your trip?"

Droy made a sound that Greg envisioned a strangled cat would sound like.

"How can you ask such a question when your daughter is missing!" Jet cried.

"Levy isn't missing," Greg explained calmly, half wondering if he should have made himself a cup of tea, "she's quite safe, I can assure you."

"Then where is she?"

"Why is her apartment _burnt down_?"

Greg chuckled lightly, "you two know better than anyone that her cooking is pretty poor."

Both men froze and their faces adopted a light green hue as they recalled the few times Levy had attempted cooking for them to see if her skills had improved.

They never did.

Droy frowned, "so…are you saying, she…she burnt down her apartment trying to cook?"

Jet laughed nervously, "don't be stupid Droy. Not even Levy's that bad at- oh God," he glanced at the knowing expression on Greg's face, "she did…didn't she?"

Greg nodded and watched in amusement as the two men groaned before sinking dejectedly into their chairs.

They were both very aware of Levy's complete lack of cooking ability, but they never would have expected that she would sink to such a degree that she would burn down her home.

"So where is she staying now? Here?"

"Oh, I bet she's staying with David."

Greg froze, he had forgotten that they didn't know about Levy's situation regarding David.

Oblivious to the now worried look on Greg's face, Jet and Droy continued speaking amongst themselves.

"Well at least she's safe,"

"I can't believe she didn't tell us though. We've been so worried!"

"She probably had a lot on her mind. Her phone was probably lost in the fire."

"Fair enough…but she could've at least sent us a message when she got settled at David's house!"

"Stupid jerk, probably distracted her."

"Yeah!"

"Yeah!"

Greg sighed. Whilst he knew they didn't hate David, he knew that they did hold some resentment towards the man.

He coughed loudly, deciding it was time to inform them of the change in circumstances, "actually, she's not with David. They aren't together anymore."

Silence echoed throughout the living room as Jet and Droy digested Greg's words.

"E-excuse me?"

"They broke up," another voice joined the mix and the three men looked up to find Rianne leaning against the door frame, "hey Jet, Droy," she nodded to them both.

"Hi Rianne."

"Hey. And what do you mean, they've broken up?"

Rianne rolled her eyes, and, not for the time, cursed Levy's decision to make the two men before her her best friends. They were so demanding at times, Rianne didn't know how Levy dealt with them. She was fairly certain that if it had been herself she would have gone insane a very long time ago.

Rianna shrugged, "they broke up. Couples do that, y'know?"

"Now Rianne," Greg tittered, "you don't need to sound so careless about it all. Your sister was very upset."

"Yeah well, it's time she got over that jerk," her eyes narrowed as she thought about David. It had taken a lot of prying, but Rianne had eventually managed to find out exactly why he had dumped her sister. To say that she was furious was an understatement.

Sensing the anger in her tone, Jet asked, "why…um..why did they break up?"

Droy nodded. Rianne was quite a calm girl, it took a lot for her to get angry.

"What did he do to her?"

Rianne smirked. There was an undercurrent of anger in both of their voices and she decided to revoke her previous thought about them being annoying.

Whilst she was incapable of running up to David and giving the jerk a piece of her mind, Jet and Droy were not.

"Daddy," she said sweetly, stepping further into the living room, "I think I saw that ginger cat playing in your flowerbed again."

Her little fib got the reaction she wanted. In a flash, Greg was up out of his seat cursing the neighbourhood cat that seemed determined to foul itself on his flowerbeds. He left the room and Rianne settled herself into his seat. Levy hadn't told her parents why she and David had broken up and she would have felt awkward telling her father.

.

.

.

Levy smiled to herself as she stepped off the bus and began making her way down the now familiar street that led to her new home. Her first day back at work had been lovely and in her arms she held a stack of glittery and sticky "We Miss You" cards from her students. She had been worried that she would be in trouble for opting to take a bit more time off work than originally agreed, but her boss had been quite understanding of her plight and hadn't given her any hassle about it.

She hummed softly as she turned the corner and the Fairy Tail bar came into sight. It was funny, she mused, but her opinions on the building had changed drastically since she had first moved in just a few weeks ago.

Before the sight of it would send her spiralling into a mild depression. The idea of living above a bar had been truly upsetting. Now, the only feelings she associated with the building were ones of happiness.

She genuinely loved her new home. She had gotten over the shock of how rowdy her new neighbours were and found that on the nights when she opted not to sit downstairs in the bar, she could actually drown out the noise and fall asleep relatively fast.

Those nights were few and far between however, she had taken to trotting downstairs and slipping into a booth with her new found friends most nights.

A small blush donned her cheeks as she recalled the exact reason for her choosing to sit down at the bar most night.

The reason went by the name of Gajeel Redfox.

Her heartbeat quickened slightly as his smirking face appeared in her mind.

Her slightly unconventional friendship with Gajeel had developed at a rather alarming rate. She wasn't entirely sure where she stood with him nowadays, but she suspected it resided somewhere between "just friends" and "more than friends".

Ever since their little date just over a week ago, she had felt something shift in the dynamics of their relationship.

She blamed the alcohol entirely, deciding to ignore that she had only had a glass or two, but she on the date she had somehow managed to summon up the courage to kiss him.

Her blush reddened as she walked.

It hadn't been a very intense kiss at all. It was simply a pressing of her lips against his own, but for her, it had been a huge step.

She _liked _Gajeel. A lot. The admission still made her feel dizzy. It just felt so strange for her to go from never receiving any male attention in her life, to being dumped and finding someone else in the space of a few weeks.

To her relief, Gajeel hadn't mentioned her impromptu kiss again and she found herself very grateful for it.

Whilst she could admit to herself that she liked the surly fireman, she knew there was absolutely no way she was ready to admit it to him yet.

Despite her reluctance to reveal her true feelings to him, she was quite happy spending time with him. He was in the bar most nights she went downstairs and on more than one occasion they had found themselves choosing a secluded booth away from everyone else. Those few nights had been her favourite. The hours would zoom by as they sat and spoke about anything and everything.

Each time she was amazed at how easy conversation would flow between her and Gajeel.

He was something special.

She approached the door to the bar and pushed it open, wondering if Gajeel would be there later on. She now had his number safely logged into her phone book on her mobile, but she hadn't managed to work up the nerves to text him yet.

She barely had time to close the door behind her before she was suddenly ambushed.

"Leeeeevyyyyyyy!"

"Leeeeeevvvvvyyyyyyy!"

She shrieked as two pairs of arms wrapped themselves around her body and squashed her tightly to their chests. The cards she carried from her students fell unceremoniously to the floor.

"C-can't…breathe…" she huffed as the culprits continued to squeeze the life out of her. From the small gap she could see out of, she caught a glance of Makarov sitting atop the counter as usual, chuckling at her unfortunate predicament.

Thankfully it was still fairly early in the afternoon and the bar was more or less vacant, meaning she wouldn't have to explain her embarrassing predicament to many people. Though she expected Makarov would ask a few questions later on.

After a few more agonisingly long seconds they released her and took a step backwards.

"Jet! Droy!" she cried, her face crinkling into an easy grin as she caught sight of the faces of her two best friends, "you're back early! I didn't think I'd be seeing you for at least another month."

"We finished up quicker than expected," Jet explained, but was quickly cut across by a rather distraught sounding Droy.

"We came to your apartment and it was gone! You didn't think about telling us your home had burnt down? Do you understand how worried we were?"

"So worried!" Jet echoed, both men trying (and failing) to look stern.

Levy smiled sheepishly at her friends. In all honesty, she had completely forgotten about informing them of her plight. With them in another country, and their contact number lost in the fire, figuring out how to contact them was nearly impossible and it hadn't even crossed her mind. She bit her lip thoughtfully, knowing that letting them know she had forgotten about them would send them into hysterics.

"I'm sorry," she said sincerely, genuinely feeling sorry about worrying them, "I just lost your number in the fire and I didn't know how to go about get a hold of you!"

They stood staring at her for a few more seconds, before they sighed, "we forgive you!"

She smirked, they were so predictable.

"Good! Now help me pick up this mess you've made and then we can go back to my apartment and you can tell me about your trip?"

They nodded and bent down with Levy to help gather up the scattered pieces of paper that lay on the floor after their little greeting.

"I'm really glad to see you guys," she mumbled earnestly once they had finished picking up the paper and were making their way to Levy's apartment, "I've missed you."

With all the mess happening in her life lately, she had forgotten just how much Jet and Droy's presence in her life calmed her.

Yes, they were overly protective at times, but they were her best friends and she knew she wouldn't trade them for anyone in the world.

Blushing awkwardly, they both draped an arm around Levy's shoulders and squeezed her gently, "we missed you too."

They followed Levy quickly to her apartment.

"I gotta admit," Droy said as she stuck the key in the keyhole, "I was worried when Rianne told us where you were living."

"Yeah," Jet agreed, "is it safe? Do you feel safe? Because you're more than welcome to crash with me if you don't feel safe!"

"Or me!" Droy added quickly, not one to be outdone.

Levy shook her head and laughed as she pushed open the door and gestured for them to enter, "it's completely safe guys. I really like living here surprisingly. It's a bit noisy, but," she smiled knowingly to herself, "I like the area."

Jet and Droy frowned before checking out her apartment. They had to agree, it was very quaint and had a distinct "Levy-type" vibe to it.

"It's nice," they admitted grudgingly, throwing themselves into the seat on the couch. They spoke about their trip abroad and the adventures they'd had and for a while Levy found herself easing back into her old life.

The good old days of Jet, Droy and Levy were back again.

Except, it wasn't all that simple. She realised she still had to tell them about David, they were bound to ask sooner or later.

She swallowed thickly and turned to them. Despite everything that had gone on with Gajeel recently, she still didn't like talking about her relationship with David. A part of her wondered if that meant she wasn't completely over him yet, and she sincerely hoped that part of her was wrong.

"I guess I should let you know, David dum-, David broke up with me."

She winced as the words left her mouth.

Yup, it still hurt to say the words aloud. Not as much as it had done at first, but the stinging sensation in her heart was still there.

Jet and Droy glanced at each other nervously before Droy cleared his throat and muttered,

"Y-yeah, we, um, Rianne already told us."

Levy blinked, "oh".

"Sorry," Jet said hurriedly, "I think she thought it'd be easier for you if we were already prepared. Us overreacting would've put you in a bad mood, I think."

"Oh," Levy settled herself into the opposite armchair and nodded to herself, not sure if Rianne telling the boys about her predicament was a good thing or not.

"Do…um…do you want to talk about it?" Droy asked uncomfortably. They loved Levy dearly, but talking about things such as emotions and romance was a rare topic for the three.

Thankfully, Levy seemed to sense his hesitance for she quickly waved her hands wildly in front of her face, whilst shaking her head.

"God no! I just want to forget about it. It's done."

She surprised not only the boys with the finality of her tone, but herself also.

Jet had been about to ask her, if she was sure, but the way she spoke made him close his mouth almost immediately. He could sense that she meant it.

The days of Levy and David was over.

He glanced to his left briefly and noted Droy glancing at him, clearly the same thought on their minds.

With David out of the picture it was back to being, Jet, Droy and Levy; just how it was supposed to be!

As Levy hopped off of her seat, declaring she was going to make them all a drink, they sunk further into the comfortable cushions beside her, with large grins on both of their faces.

Everything was back to normal again.

Or…so they thought.

.

.

.

Gajeel smirked as he pushed open the doors of Fairy Tail and glanced around for a familiar face. He nodded to Kinana from behind the bar as he moved further and further into the bar.

Lucy was sitting at a table with Mirajane and Lisanna, giggling about something he knew he wasn't interested in. He shot them a half hearted wave as he passed their table.

Macao and Wakaba were huddled around the bar top with Cana and he couldn't help but snort in derision as he overheard a bit of their conversation.

"_So…if we can outlast you in a drinking contest, you'll cover our shifts for a week?"_

"_Yup!" Cana chuckled evilly, "but if I win, you both become my slaves for a week. Deal?"_

"_I'm…I'm not sure that's lawful…"_

"_Tch, wimps!"_

He shook his head, passing them as they began to down their first glass of the evening. Gajeel was the first to admit that he had a fairly strong tolerance for alcohol, but going up against Cana was asking for trouble. He was certain that being drunk was the new sober for her nowadays.

He saw a few more familiar faces as he weaved through tables and people.

Erza was lecturing Natsu about something - Gray was sniggering childishly near by. Juvia was crouched behind a pillar watching Gray eagerly.

Laxus, Freed, Bixlow and Evergreen had a booth to themselves and Gajeel nodded stiffly at them. He still had a rematch with Laxus he needed to do. Apparently Laxus remembered their unfinished business as he glanced up and glared at Gajeel.

Gajeel nodded cockily towards him and began to walk towards their table, but stopped abruptly as a familiar giggle met his ears.

Without even bothering to explain to Laxus that he'd deal with him later, he changed his direction and barrelled towards the direction he'd heard Levy's distinct giggle.

He found her cooped up in a booth and to his confusion, she was not alone, nor was she seated with anyone he recognised.

He frowned as two men came into his view, both of them shamelessly ogling Levy. A possessive burst of anger travelled through his body and he stomped towards them, throwing himself into the empty seat next to Levy with ease.

"Oh!" Levy gasped as Gajeel bumped into her a little, "hello! I was wondering if you'd turn up tonight."

"Hn," he grunted, still glaring suspiciously at the two men who were regarding him with equally suspicious glares, "you gonna introduce me to Thing 1 and Thing 2?"

Levy inhaled sharply and lightly whacked Gajeel on the shoulder. She was used to Gajeel's ridiculous taunting nicknames, but she knew Jet and Droy weren't and they wouldn't take his words kindly.

"_These_," she said pointedly, "are my best friends. Droy," she gestured to the black haired man, "and Jet," she gestured to the one with sandy blonde hair, "I'm sure I've told you about them before?"

"Nope," Gajeel said bluntly. He vaguely remembered seeing a few pictures of them in her apartment before, but he couldn't recall actually having a conversation about them.

Levy winced, "a-are you sure?"

"Yeah."

Noting that both Jet and Droy looked like they were closer to having heart attacks, Levy quickly moved on - making a mental note to slap Gajeel at the earliest possible moment.

"Anyway!" she said hurriedly, "guys, this is Gajeel. He's my…" she trailed off slowly and inadvertedly glanced up at Gajeel who was staring at her with raised eyebrows, looking far too smug for her likings.

"Uh…he's my…well, that is to say, he…he's the one who rescued me from the fire and…well…I guess we're friends now."

Gajeel snorted, smirking at her convoluted way of spluttering out what they were to each other.

"I guess we're friends," Gajeel said slowly, still smirking as se blushed.

It was very clear to everyone seated round the booth that they were something more than friends.

Jet scowled.

Droy glared.

Neither liked where this was going.

Levy could only groan and sink lower into her seat as Gajeel happily glared back at the two men.

Apparently asking for the three men in her life to get along was too much.

.

.

.

**A/N: **Soooo….. new chapter up, and Jet and Droy appear yay and they're jealous muahahaha Umm not much to say really, we're getting to the actual major plot of the story so…yeah.

I already have another Gajeel & Levy fic in mind that I'm starting on so watch out for that.

Also, even though I don't explicitly ship them, I for some strange reason have started a Lucy and Loki fic…hm.

Anyway,

Review please!

**EDIT: **Ahhhhh if you noticed I mixed up some descriptions earlier on so I just changed that *slams head on the table in embarrassment* This is why you should always proof read and not just go to sleep straight away!

Thanks for telling me guys, and sorry 'bout that .

REVIEW PLEASE :)


	12. Chapter 12

**Smokin' Hot**

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?' and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."

**12; **Drunken Antics

The tension around their little booth was practically tangible, and Levy found herself wanting to slam her head on the table repeatedly. Maybe then she'd get some relief from the awkwardness surrounding her. Jet and Droy were seated across from her, arms firmly folded across their chests as they sat glaring at Gajeel.

She would have felt sorry for Gajeel if he wasn't sitting with his own arms crossed across his chest sending piercing glares their way.

She raised an eyebrow as she realised Gajeel was casually flexing his arm and chest, making the already distinct muscles a bit more obvious. She sniggered, catching his attention.

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing," she said laughing, innocently poking his tensed arm with her forefinger, "nothing at all."

A faint blush appeared on his cheeks as if became apparent to him that Levy had wised up to what he was doing.

Across the table, both Jet and Droy visibly bristled as they watched Levy poke Gajeel's arm. Catching the way their eyes widened and then narrowed quickly, Levy dropped her hands into her lap and sighed.

She didn't think she'd ever been in a more awkward situation.

"I'm gonna go get a drink," Gajeel announced suddenly, pushing himself up from the table, "want one, Shrimp?"

"Levy doesn't drink," Droy snapped promptly, with Jet nodding wildly in agreement next to him.

Gajeel simply snorted, "I'll get you a Woo-Woo," before bounding off towards the bar.

"What on Earth is a Woo-Woo?" Jet growled at Gajeel's back, not appreciating the dismissive snort.

"It's a drink…a nice drink," Levy replied lamely, "it's quite weak!" she added quickly, upon noticing that both men looked scandalized by her admission that she had not only tasted the alcoholic beverage, but enjoyed it as well.

"W-what's happened to you?" Droy muttered.

"I blame David. This whole break up has left you all shaken up."

"Right. This isn't the Levy we know."

Levy's eye twitched as she was her two so called best friends openly discussing her apparent short comings as if she wasn't sitting right in front of them.

"I'm not a child you know," she snapped, having had enough, "I am 23 years old and if I want to have a drink I'll damn sure as hell have one, and I don't expect the two people I'm closest to in the world to judge me for that!"

"You seem pretty close to that Gajeel guy," Jet said bitterly, "too close for someone you've only known for a few weeks."

Levy's cheeks reddened, unable to dispute that.

It was true, even she found it odd how comfortable she felt around Gajeel, having only known him for such a short space of time. Normally she was quite reclusive and wary about making new friends but for some reason she had grown attached to Gajeel incredibly fast.

"So?" she stammered out, "my relationship with Gajeel is none of your business." Almost as soon as the words came out of her mouth, she regretted them.

"Relationship?" Droy screeched, "_relationship_?"

Levy sunk lower into her seat as others in the bar turned towards them in confusion at Droy's deafening screech.

"We're friends," she confirmed, "just friends. And even if it were anything more, that would be none of your business. Gajeel's a nice guy anyway."

"Tch. He looks like a criminal."

Levy swiftly kicked Jet underneath the table.

"Owwwww!"

"He does not look like a criminal," she said firmly, "I owe him my life. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't even be here today. You have to respect that."

Grudgingly, Jet and Droy nodded their heads, unable to deny the fact that Gajeel had saved her life.

"I still think he's a bad in influence," Droy huffed, "first the alcohol. Soon you'll be getting your nose pierced."

Levy laughed, wrinkling her nose as she did so. Truthfully, she had grown to love Gajeel's piercings. They contributed to his overall attraction levels, but she was already fairly certain she'd never be brave enough to mark her own face the way he did his.

"And those nicknames," Jet added, "it's just rude!"

Levy did have to give him that one. Although she had gotten used to his ridiculous nicknames, she still recognised they were rather rude for someone who had never met him before.

"I'm not asking you to like him," she said with a sigh, "I'm just asking you to be polite. I…,well…" she swallowed thickly and quickly whirled around to check Gajeel was still preoccupied at the bar. She frowned as she realised he wasn't and quickly scanned the room for her companion.

It didn't take long to find him.

He was standing in front of Laxus' booth with their drinks in his hand. Not really caring what he was doing there, and satisfied that he wouldn't be returning just yet, she turned back to Jet and Droy.

"Well, I think I like him."

The silence that followed her statement told her everything she needed to know.

"Don't look at me like that!" she moaned, avoiding their shocked glances, "it's nothing serious, I just feel this attraction between us," she waved her hands wildly in front of her chest, "he makes me feel happy."

"That…" Jet said slowly, "has to be,"

"the most ridiculous thing you've ever said," Droy finished off, looking at Levy as if she were insane, "you've just met this freak show Levy!"

"He is not a fr-"

"This is all David's fault," Droy determined, "you're still hurting over the break up, so you've just rebounded onto this Gajeel because he was the first man to treat you nicely after David."

Ignoring Levy's look of horror and disgust, Droy nodded wisely to himself.

"You got so comfortable being in a relationship, you feel like you _need _to be in one," Jet added, "what you really need to do is take some time away from Gajeel and gather your thoughts. I promise you won't have any feelings towards him once you realise what we've just said."

Levy's mouth dropped open in shock.

She had never heard them be so outright hurtful before. Sure, they were idiots, and said stupid things without thinking but this was the worst. Blinking away tears, she pointed roughly at them.

"No!" she hissed, "what I _need _is for you two to get the hell out of here," her voice was wobbly as she glared at them.

"Levy?"

"We're just saying what you need to hear right now!"

"No, no you're not," she cried, "you always, always do this! You want me to be with you two forever and not live my own life, have my own fun, or even make my own mistakes. I'm going through a tough time right now, and instead of you standing by my side and supporting me, you do _this?_ I love you both so much, b-but right now I can't stand to look at either of you. Please," she sniffed and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, "please just go."

"Levy, we-"

"Just go, Jet. Give me some time to cool down."

They paused for a few seconds before sighing, "we're sorry Levy."

She turned her head firmly to the side, refusing to watch them leave. She was sick of it all. She loved the two men like they were her brothers, but she hated the way they treated her like she was some sort of porcelain doll that needed to be protected at all times.

She was perfectly capable of protecting herself.

"Where'd your bodyguards go?"

She jumped in surprise as Gajeel's deep voice reached her and she felt him slide into the empty seat next to hers.

"Home," she said bluntly, swiping the glass of Woo-Woo away from him, "they went home."

Gajeel rose an eyebrow into the air as he watched her gulp down her drink at a much faster pace than usual.

"Everything alright?"

"Everything's just peachy."

Gajeel sighed. He knew that tone of voice.

That was the same tone of voice Juvia used when he had said something rude about Gray and hadn't realised she was in the vicinity to hear it.

"What's wrong short stuff?"

"My name is Levy, Gajeel. Would it kill you to use it?" she snapped, scowling at her now empty glass.

Groaning, Gajeel leant back in his seat, "what did they do?"

"Who?"

"Your bodyguards."

"Nothing."

"Well you weren't in a bad mood when I left."

"I'm not in a bad mood."

"Tch," Gajeel scoffed, picking up his glass and sipping his beverage slowly, "you're acting like a kid."

She scoffed loudly at his choice or wording, still feeling sensitive from her argument with Jet and Droy.

"Yeah well, everyone treats me like a child, I might as well start acting like it."

"Ah," Gajeel hummed, "so _that's _what they did wrong."

She winced at Gajeel's know-it-all tone of voice but felt her previous anger quickly ebbing away. She felt mildly guilty as she realised she had been taking her frustration out on Gajeel and, - for once -, he had done nothing to deserve it.

"I'm just tired of it all. They're always trying to protect me, trying to tell me who I can or can't see. It's infuriating."

Gajeel simply hummed once again. He had a sneaking suspicion he knew what exactly Jet and Droy had said to Levy that had irked her so much.

"What do you think I should do?"

"Eh?" her question surprised him. He put down his now empty glance and regarded her with a strange look, "do about what?"

"Jet and Droy you idiot!" Levy sighed, "I love them, I really do. But…but maybe it's time I step away from them?"

"Nah, don't do that," Gajeel said almost instantly, "you said it yourself, you love them like brothers. So they see you as their little sister. It'll be annoying, but they're gonna keep babying you. Same way you'll always gonna be looking out for your sister. Understand?"

"But it's so annoying! Would you believe they tried to say I shouldn't see _you_?"

He sniggered lightly, "yeah, I figured as much."

She frowned and wiggled around in her seat so she could face him better, "does that bother you?"

"Not really."

"Oh," she glanced downwards, wondering why she felt disheartened by his admission.

"I'm not here for their approval," he continued, staring fixatedly at the wall opposite them as if he were determined not to look at Levy, "I mean, it'd be nice if your brothers didn't hate me, but I've always liked a challenge," he shrugged and chuckled.

"O-oh," she stammered, feeling a familiar warm sensation on her cheeks at his words. It wasn't an admission of love or anything, but she couldn't help but catch onto the underlying hint of affection in his words. Her frown quickly moulded into a small smile. Sitting with Gajeel for just a few minutes had relieved any of the stress and tension she had previously felt.

"I'll give them a call tomorrow," she said firmly, "let them know I don't hate them really."

"Give it a few days," he sniggered evilly, "let them sweat it out for a bit."

"You're evil!" Levy laughed, but secretly found herself agreeing with him. It would do them both some good to actually sit and worry about their actions, "oh yeah, what were you talking about with Laxus over there?"

Gajeel's already questionable smirk transformed into something entirely more evil at Levy's question. And, if she wasn't mistaken, she could see a mischievous glint in his dark eyes.

"Remember that bet I had with him a while ago?"

She nodded and rolled her eyes, remembering clearly that afternoon she had first met Laxus and the two had discussed how Laxus had beat him pitifully in their drinking competition.

"We haven't had the chance to go at it again, until tonight," he slammed his closed fist into his open palm, "that jerk is going down!"

"Great…" Levy sighed, "just great."

"I know!" Gajeel chuckled, either not hearing or completely ignoring her sarcasm, "when I win I'm gonna make him do my overnight shifts for the next two weeks, _gihihihihihi!"_

"And what happens when you lose?"

"Pssh," Gajeel waved a dismissive hand in front of her face, "last time was a fluke. He doesn't have a chance."

"Hmm," she hummed, pushing herself up from her seat, "well while you drink yourself into a coma, I'm going to find someone with sense to talk to," she climbed over his lap, doing her best to ignore the way she brushed against his groin as she did so, "good luck with your little battle."

"I'll come find you when I win," he said cockily, "I'll deserve a reward."

She blushed at his meaning, but refused to turn back and give him the satisfaction of seeing her red face.

.

.

.

She found Lucy sat at the bar alone not long after leaving Gajeel and the pair quickly got talking.

Levy really liked Lucy. The perky blonde was extremely easy to get along with. They spent the better part of the next hour discussing Levy's job. Lucy was absolutely fascinated at the fact that Levy was a teacher. The blonde admitted that although she loved children deep down, she never really gelled with them properly, and teaching would be a nightmare for her.

"_Oh" _Lucy had gasped, "_you should get one of the guys to come in and talk to your students about fire safety_."

Levy had nodded eagerly, "_I've sort of tried to get Gajeel to come in."_

Lucy had laughed at that, "_we've been trying to get him to do a school for a long time now. If you do, you are a God!"_

After that the conversation had drifted into more menial talk about their favourite TV shows, with Lucy promising to lend Levy a few of her favourite series after it became apparent that Levy didn't actually watch that much television.

Not too long after that did loud jeers and roars interrupt their conversation.

"Calm down!" Lucy yelled, not that it did any good, for their noise was ridiculously loud, "ugh, I hate when they get like this," she grumbled, swirling around on her seat so she could glare wholeheartedly at the group of men, and Cana, who were surrounding Laxus and Gajeel's booth.

"Does this happen often," Levy asked curiously, mimicking Lucy's movements so she could get a better look at them all.

"Pretty much," a tired sounding Kinana appeared, smiling ruefully at the group, "once or twice a month _somebody _challenges someone."

"Their ego's are too big for them to just walk away," Lucy said, shaking her head and shuddering as she remembered a particular challenge that had involved Natsu and Gray. She still had nightmares about the amount of vomit she had to clean up that evening.

"Who's going at it tonight anyway," Kinana asked, leaning against the bar top, "and why?"

"Gajeel and Laxus," Levy informed her, "and it's a rematch."

"Ohhhhh," Kinana giggled, "I remember last time. Poor Gajeel."

Both Lucy and Levy joined in in her laughter. Though Levy hadn't seen how it had ended last time, she imagined a drunk Gajeel who had just lost to Laxus would have been quite a hilarious sight to see.

A loud bang made the three women jump.

"Holy shit!" Lucy gasped as the crowd dispersed to allow a seemingly unconscious Laxus to drop like a brick to the floor.

"_Wooohoooooo~" _a drunken Gajeel sung happily, swiping his large glass in the air, "I wonnnnnnnnn!"

Levy's eyes widened as she watched Gajeel clamber awkwardly upwards onto his seat, stand on it, and then start dancing on top of it.

"Is…is…" she stuttered as she watched him shake his hips, completely out of tune to the music playing in the background.

"Wait for it," Lucy muttered, already shaking her as she knew what was coming.

"Sweet Jesus," Levy breathed as Gajeel decided to accompany his unusual dance moves with some, frankly horrific singing.

"_Ohhhhh shoo bii doo bop, wonderfullllllll how wonderfulllll~"_

The crowd around him began, understandably, booing and quickly dispersed back to their own corners of the bar.

"He does this every time he gets drunk?" Levy squeaked out, her face red from second hand embarrassment.

"Pretty much," Kinana sighed, "he doesn't seem to understand that he's not a good singer."

"You can say that again," Lucy huffed, covering her ears dramatically as Gajeel attempted to hit an extremely high note.

Levy's face dropped as Gajeel went from singing the first song to singing something he made up on his own.

"_Owwwww you're my blue haired chiiiiiiiccck_" he howled.

Levy groaned.

Lucy laughed, "that's cute," she cooed.

"He's not talking about me," Levy said weakly.

"_Owwwww you're my book worrmmmmmmmm" _he screeched.

Levy sunk lower and lower into her seat.

"Sure he's not," Lucy and Kinana both laughed.

Unable to take their laughter any longer, and in a bid to make Gajeel shut up, Levy sprung off her seat and marched over to the booth Gajeel stood on.

She was careful to sidestep Laxus' unconscious body as she went.

"Gajeel!" she hissed, all to aware that everyone was laughing at them both now, "get down!"

"Heeeeey, Smurf!"

She twitched at the nickname, "Gajeel."

"Smurf."

"_Gajeel_."

Laughing and completely ignoring her tone of voice, Gajeel clambered down from the seat he stood on and fixed Levy with a drunken grin.

"Oh dear, he is pretty bad tonight."

Levy turned around to find Juvia shaking her head disapprovingly at Gajeel.

"So I take it he doesn't normally get this drunk?"

She shook her head.

Sighing, Levy turned back to Gajeel, "you need to get home and sleep this off."

"Gotcha Pintsize," he began sticking his hands into his pockets and Levy immediately realised what he was trying to do.

"You're too drunk to make your _own_ way home safely," Levy said sternly as she watched him fish about in his pocket for his car keys.

"Levy's right," Juvia agreed, prodding Gajeel in his cheeks, taking advantage of his drunkenness, "Juvia will take you home."

A weight lifted off Levy's chest, "thank you Juvia! You live near him?"

Juvia shook her head, "no, no. Juvia lives on the other side of town. Near Gray-sama."

Levy pretended to ignore that extra piece of information, and severely hoped it was only a coincidence she lives so close to the object of her affections.

"Oh, so it would put you out to drive him home?"

Juvia shrugged, "Gajeel is a friend. Juvia does not mind."

Levy bit her lip, although Juvia didn't seem to mind driving out to take Gajeel home, she felt guilty and knew that Gajeel would as well.

"Does _anybody _live near him?"

"Lily does, but Lily isn't here tonight. Hmm. Laxus also lives close to Gajeel but…"

"Got it," Levy said immediately, thinking of the unconscious Laxus who had already been taken home by Bixlow.

She continued to bite her lip as she tried to figure out a solution that would be best for everyone.

"I…um…well I suppose he could crash with me tonight," she said quietly, "that would be easier for everyone. That way he could drive himself home in the morning?"

Juvia smiled smugly, "and where will you sleep Levy?"

Not missing the glint in Juvia's eyes, Levy blushed, "on the couch of course!"

Juvia giggled, enjoying teasing her new friend.

"I'm just trying to think of what would be easier for everyone," Levy protested, "as his _friend_."

"Hmm, what do you think Gajeel?" Juvia asked, turning to the drunken man, "would you like to stay the night at Levy's?"

Gajeel laughed, "sleep with the shrimp? Hell yeah!"

"He's drunk!" Levy said quickly, "he doesn't mean it like _that_. And we won't be sleeping together you idiot," she whacked him on the arm.

"Yeah, yeah. Jusssss' see if you can resist meh!" he slurred, winking in what he probably believed was an attractive way.

She rolled her eyes and grabbed a hold of his arm, tugging him upwards, "yeah, yeah. Let's get going."

"Need any help getting him up?" Juvia asked helpfully, about to stand up and help them, but Levy shook her head, shooing her back down,

"No, no, we'll be fine. You just get home safely,"

The women said their goodbyes and Levy moved towards the back of the bar with Gajeel trailing slowly behind her.

"You're an idiot," she said primly, as she pushed open the door for him to walk through, "why on Earth would you let yourself get this drunk?"

"S'fun?" he grinned cheekily down at her, "an' I had to show Laxus whose boss!"

"Yeah well, now you'll be waking up with a painful hangover, so I hope it was worth it."

He shrugged, "I get to sleep wit' you though."

"We're _not _sleeping together."

"Ya know ya want to."

"I don't."

"You do."

"Nope."

"Yessssssssssss, why else would you smooch me on our date?"

Thankfully, he didn't appear to be looking for an answer to his drunken question as he began chuckling madly at something.

"You're a happy drunk," she noted, finding it strange that he could only become so obviously gleeful when intoxicated.

They made their way to Levy's apartment without much incident, except for Gajeel tripping up the stairs a few time. Once inside Levy quickly directed Gajeel to her bedroom and forced him to sit on her bed.

"Ok, just sit there," Levy ordered sternly once Gajeel had settled himself onto her bed, "I'll bring you a glass of water."

"Th..thanks shortie," he slurred, rubbing his head in confusion.

She smiled as she left the room. Despite the strange situation, she found that she was relishing the opportunity to take care of Gajeel. He was oddly cute and innocent when drunk. She quickly dashed into her kitchen and swiped a glass from her cupboard. Once she had filled it with some cool water she returned back to her bedroom, intending on making him drink some in an attempt to sober him up just a little.

"O-oh," she gasped upon re-entry, to find that Gajeel had made himself at home. He was sprawled out across her bed, fast asleep. A soft snore escaped his mouth, telling her that he was deeply asleep.

"Well," she huffed, placing the glass on the bedside cabinet, "at least he had the decency to take off his shoes," she noted glancing at his boots that had been haphazardly kicked off and were now lying at the foot of her bed.

Feeling a bit unsure of herself, she slowly lowered herself down onto the bed near his head. Her heartbeat quickened a little as she watched him snooze. He looked so calm and innocent in his sleep, it was a distinct difference to his usual gruff persona. Without even truly recognising what she was doing, she reached out and ran a trembling hand through his long black locks. She gasped quietly as she realised they were as soft as she had always imagined.

"You're a big baby," she mumbled, stroking his head gently. He grunted in his sleep and turned over onto his side, swinging one big arm over to rest on top of Levy's lap. Her blush increased tenfold at the action. Although she knew he was fast asleep and had no control over his movements, she couldn't help but think the move was mildly sensual. She could feel his fingers pressing lightly into her upper thigh.

"…Smurf," he muttered in his sleep, "…can't even cook…_gihihi_."

Her soft smile vanished almost instantaneously, "you're insulting me in your sleep?" she cried in disbelief. He grunted once again and then fell into silence. For a few moments she sat watching the rise and fall of his chest, fighting the urge to take her fingers from his hair and run them slowly down his body. She'd been itching to run her hands down the contours of his muscles for a while now and having him fast asleep in front of her wasn't doing much to still her urges.

Shaking her head to herself, she pulled her hands from his hair and moved to push herself up from the bed, intending on spending a fairly uncomfortable night on the couch. As she moved however, Gajeel's grip on her thighs tightened.

She frowned and prodded his cheeks roughly. He didn't awaken.

Once again she tried to move, but his iron like grip kept her there.

"G-Gajeel?" she whispered nervously.

He stayed fast asleep. She tried a few more times to free herself from his grasp, but soon became resigned to the fact that she wasn't getting free. Her already fast beating heart quickened as she realised she would have to spend the night sleeping next to him.

In the same bed.

As.

Gajeel.

She swallowed thickly as all sorts of scenarios made their way into her mind. Some innocent. Most of them not.

"Gajeel?" she whispered, deciding to give it one last go, "c-can you let me go?"

He answered by snoring.

"Great."

Slowly, so as not to disturb the slumbering beast next to her, she wiggled down as much as she could. His grip still remained on her body, but she found she could move herself into a sleeping position without much resistance on his behalf. Once she was lying down properly, he had shifted enough so his arm was now slung over her midriff. She lay straight, not daring to turn to her side for she knew she would have been greeted with his slumbering face and the urge to steal another kiss would have proved too much for her to avoid.

She lay in that position for quite a while, unable to fall asleep in such awkward circumstances.

"I hate you, I hate you," she grumbled as she glared upwards at the darkened ceiling. She found it entirely unfair that she had brought him upstairs out of the goodness of her heart, and now he was the one sleeping peacefully whilst she was wide awake.

As if he had heard her complaints and could read her mind, Gajeel shifted once again. This time moving fully onto his side, and pulling Levy with him so she was squashed up against his stomach.

Her first instinct had been to screech out in shock, but all too soon the warm his body naturally gave out surrounded her and she found herself involuntarily snuggling into his chest. She moved her legs to make herself a little bit more comfortable, resulting in her legs becoming entwined with her own. If she was embarrassed, she didn't show it as a content smile spread across her face.

She had no doubt that tomorrow morning would prove incredibly awkward for the two of them, but at that point in time she was more preoccupied with the calming way his steady breathing was quickly sending her into a slumber.

"Goodnight Gajeel," she whispered, pressing her head against his chest just above his heart, before she too fell asleep.

.

.

.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **HELLOOOOOOO~ Update! Drunk Gajeel. Drunken snuggles. Muahahahaha!

Ugh, I wanted to update this like 2 days ago but FF has stopped letting me log in on Google Chrome and I really didn't want to use Mozilla but sacrifices had to be made to get this out! *weeps*

I just wanted to say oh my gosh, this story hit over 28,000 views. That's amazing, so thank you to everyone that's read and enjoyed or just read or whatever! It's totally cool! I saw the figure and I was like "woah…28,000? Really? Wow? Woaaaaaah" So yes, thank you! I really appreciate it!

Please keep on reviewing! *kissy face*


	13. Chapter 13

**Smokin' Hot**

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?' and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."

**13; **Breakfast

When he awoke the next morning, he realised two things right away.

Firstly, his breath reeked of alcohol and it took everything in his power not to wretch as soon as he noticed it.

Secondly, he wasn't in his own bed. That realisation was more pressing than the whole bad breath thing, so he frowned as he wiggled about in the foreign bed trying to figure out where he was.

Something small and soft was pressing against his stomach, and his right arm was completely dead as if something had been laying on it all night.

Still at a loss to where he was and becoming increasingly more aware of the growing headache he was getting, he reluctantly opened his eyes.

"What…" he groaned as the bright sunlight peeped through a crack in the curtains and assaulted his eyes. Cursing he turned his head to the side and surveyed the room he was in, hoping to try and figure out his whereabouts.

Dark yellow walls stared back at him which only increased his frown.

On the rare occasions he'd woken up from a drunken night out in an unfamiliar room he woke up to cream walls and would realise Juvia had taken him home.

He couldn't remember anyone with yellow walls.

Still frowning, he glanced downwards to find out what the hell was pushing against him.

"Ah…" he swallowed thickly as Levy's slim body came into view. Her blue hair was sprawled messily around her face and her pink lips were parted into a small smile.

For a few seconds he simply watched the rise and fall of her chest, finding it oddly therapeutic. She moaned lightly in her sleep and shifted her body so her leg was draped even further over his own. Her head was resting on top of his arm, which explained why it felt dead.

He coughed lightly, his cheeks reddening with every passing second, not understanding what they were doing in the same bed together.

They were both still clothed, which was a good thing.

Or maybe not. He wasn't quite sure.

But at least that had ruled out them getting up to any drunken activities they might regret the previous night.

She moaned again in her sleep, this time moving around so she was no longer curled up into his stomach and instead rolled over so she was lying flat on her back.

He chuckled, realising she was a fairly restless sleeper. His chuckle was short lived and quickly turned into a weird choking sound once he noticed that her moved had shifted her clothes and raised her t-shirt higher so her slim stomach was now exposed to him.

His mouth fell slack as he watched her toned muscles ripple gently as she inhaled.

The faint blush developed quickly into a full blown one.

It was an unexpected revelation, but a sleep tousled Levy was _extremely _attractive to him. With her messy hair, parted lips, exposed stomach, and slim legs still entwined with his own, it took every ounce of his self-control not to reach out and touch her.

"G-Gajeel, stop," she breathed and for a second he froze, thinking she had woken up and had caught him staring at her so intently. After a few horrifying moments he realised she was still fast asleep and he let out a deep sigh of relief that quickly turned into a cocky laugh.

"_Gihihihi_," he laughed, "you dreaming about me Shrimp?" he asked quietly feeling extremely elated that he had managed to penetrate her dreams.

"Stop it…jerk," she breathed again, her brows furrowing and her lips pursing into a pout even in her sleep addled state.

"Oi," he grunted, poking her roughly on her exposed stomach, "don't insult me when I can't defend myself!"

He had expected her to wake up with a start after he poked her but she still remained fast asleep. Curiously, he poked her again, a tiny bit harder this time.

The only reaction he got was her wiggling about a little, but still she remained asleep.

Still curious, he pressed his whole palm down onto her stomach and tickled her lightly.

Her mouth split into a content smile, but still she remained asleep.

"Tch," he scoffed, still not removing his hand from her stomach, "you're a deep sleeper short stuff." The idea fascinated him, and he found that he was enjoying finding out new information about the peculiar girl below him with each passing day. Levy was unlike any other woman he had met before.

He swallowed thickly as he realised something that would probably make both Juvia and Lily smile smugly at him.

He was falling for her.

As soon as the thought left his mind he grimaced.

"Ugh," he shook his head wildly and tried to push the thought far, far, away into the back of his mind.

He wasn't sure what had come over him.

Normally, Lily was the person to spout that stupid crap about love and falling for someone. He did _not _fall for anyone.

He was Gajeel Redfox. He barely had any friends, how the hell was he supposed to sustain a proper relationship? He vaguely remembered the shambolic attempt with Sue a few years ago and immediately knew he didn't want that for Levy.

As much as he hated to admit it, she was special.

And he didn't think he was special enough for her.

She was far too good for him. Even as he watched her twitch and squirm, enjoying her weird dreams, he could feel a warm aura surrounding her. She was a complete contrast to his dark self.

Being with him would ruin her. He was sure of it.

The thought left him feeling strangely empty.

Part of him wanted to step away; slip out of her bed, go home, and never return. He could find a new bar to frequent. Avoiding her would be easy.

Another part of him never wanted to let go of her. He wanted to preserve the strange moment forever, knowing he would be content with just simply staring at her sleeping form forever. He knew he'd never be able to pass her on the road and see her clinging to the arm of another man and not feel rage bubbling up in his chest. Lily often called him a possessive bastard, and he'd always denied it. As he lay in the bed, arms draped around Levy's stomach, he finally understood what he meant. She was _his _damn it, even if she didn't know it yet.

_Those _thoughts made him feel sick. When the hell did he get so bloody sappy? The guys at the firehouse would never let him live it down if they could read his mind. He wasn't even sure if he could let himself live it down!

"Mmm," Levy suddenly stirred underneath him and he watched as she stretched her slim body like a cat, exposing even more of her stomach and he was surprised to see she possessed slight curves, "such a good sleep," she murmured, her voice still thick with sleep.

She sounded incredibly sexy to him.

His heart began to race as she yawned and he wondered how she would react to waking up in bed with him.

She opened her eyes and blinked up at him, reminding him of the first time they had met and he had gotten his first glance at those brilliantly bright brown eyes.

She frowned as she stared up at him.

He grinned down at her sheepishly.

She frowned again.

His grin faltered a little bit.

Still frowning she glanced downwards.

"Gajeel…." She said softly.

"Uh…yeah?"

"Why…um…" she cleared her throat, "why is your hand up my shirt?"

"_Ehhh?_" he followed her line of sight and his mouth dropped open in horror upon noticing that as she had stretched whilst waking up, his hand had followed her movement and was now lodged firmly up her shirt, stopping just below the swell of her breast, "_shit_."

With strength he didn't even know she possessed, she pushed into his stomach hard and shoved him off the bed.

He fell to the floor with a loud _thud_.

"Pervert!"

He groaned as he heard her light footsteps fleeing the room.

_Well…it could've gone worse._

.

.

.

"This was a bad idea, a very bad idea," Levy grumbled sadly to herself.

She was hiding in her own apartment. She sat against her bathtub with her legs pulled up tightly against her chest, the door was locked and she had stuck her laundry hamper in front of it, just to be sure.

"Stupidest idea," she mumbled again.

The previous night when she had decided to allow Gajeel stay the night, them sleeping together in the same bed had definitely not been her intention. She had meant to stick Gajeel in the bed and then camp out on the sofa for the night.

She whimpered into her hands as she replayed the events of last night. She hadn't meant to fall asleep next to him! Her intention had been to sleep for a few hours and then crawl out of bed before he woke up. Woke up to find him grinning at her and with his hand up her shirt was most definitely not something she had anticipated.

And her _dream_….

The dream she had had was not helping matters at all. She squealed into her palms and felt her face flush as she recalled the strangely saucy dream she had had the night before. Needless to say, seeing the person in her dream the moment she had woken up was not helpful. And the fact that he was close to doing something he had done in her dream was what pretty much sent her over the edge.

She felt mildly guilty for shoving him out of her bed like that, but she had panicked.

"Oi, Shrimp?"

She jumped as his deep voice came through the locked door.

"I know you're in there."

"I…I…I'm just washing my face!" she called back, trying and failing to get rid of the high pitched shriek in her tone.

There was a very pregnant pause and for a few long seconds Levy wondered if he would break down the bathroom door.

"…right," he eventually replied, not sounding like he believed her horribly unconvincing lie for a second, "well, I'm gonna make breakfast. You want some?"

She blinked.

"Breakfast?"

"Yeah Shrimp, most people eat it in the morning."

She scowled at the door, "that's not what I meant you jerk! But…but, you're making breakfast?"

Though she couldn't see him, she felt she just _knew _that he shrugged, "I'm hungry," he replied nonchalantly, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Almost immediately her mouth began to water as she recalled the time he had cooked dinner for them. She had forgotten how great a cook he was and suddenly her stomach yearned for more of his delicious food.

"Um…go on then," she called, "just don't make a mess!"

"No promises," he sniggered before she heard his heavy footsteps wander off towards her kitchen. Once she heard the kitchen door close she breathed out a sigh of relief and leant back against the bathtub.

Him cooking would give her some time to collect her thoughts so she wasn't a blubbering hormonal mess when she eventually fled from her wonderful hiding place.

She stood up slowly, making her mind up to have a shower to help put her in her right mind. She quickly stripped out of her clothes and stepped into the shower, sighing contentedly as the warm spray hit her body.

Over the loud noise of the shower she could just about hear him singing loudly as he cooked and she rolled her eyes, deciding that she would most definitely have to speak to him about his singing habit. It just wasn't good on her ears. Or anyone's ears for that matter.

Despite just how awful his singing was, Levy couldn't help but find it oddly endearing. Like being able to cook, it was such an unexpected hobby and she couldn't fight the urge to know more about him. She wanted to read him like her favourite book, she wanted to know him inside and out, cover to cover. She wanted to know about his past, his future aspirations. She wanted to know what made him happy, what made him angry, what made him sad.

She wanted to know everything.

And that scared her.

Because she knew she was falling for him, and she was falling hard.

It was a strange feeling developing feelings for someone. She could feel it in her heart, it was beat a little faster whenever he entered the room, she would be able to feel the blush rushing to her face whenever he spoke to her. There was a spark every time he touched her.

And she had never felt any of that with David.

David made her feel happy in the beginning but it wasn't on the same level as Gajeel. She never found herself itching to learn more about David, she was always simply content with knowing him on the surface.

Now she thought back on their time together, she realised she didn't really know the real David. He was always hiding _something_. It was as if their whole yearlong relationship had been one big lie. She scoffed to herself deciding that it probably was. The more she thought about it, the more she didn't buy his lie that he had been seeing the other woman for only two months. He was forever on business trips, or unable to stay round because he was working late and she had been naïve enough to believe his lies.

She didn't get that vibe from Gajeel.

His honesty shone through like a beacon of light through his gruff personality and she knew he would never hurt her the way David had.

Sighing, she switched off the water and quickly grabbed her towel to protect her from the sudden cold she felt after being drenched in warm water for so long.

She felt so confused. She needed to sort out just what was happening between her and Gajeel before she went crazy from the confusion of it all.

Shaking her head, she quickly walked across the bathroom and quietly unlocked the door. As quietly as possible she poked her dripping wet head out of the door and peered suspiciously down the corridor. She could still hear Gajeel clattering away in the kitchen and decided it was safe enough for her to flee to her bedroom. She flung open the bedroom door and dashed down the corridor and into her bedroom, slamming the bedroom door shut behind her.

The smell of something sizzling greeted her senses as she dropped the towel and fumbled around in her drawers for some clothes. Her stomach purred and she smiled, quickening her pace so she could hurry about and get some of Gajeel's delicious food in her mouth.

Deciding that since it was a Saturday, she wouldn't leave her house she flung on a pair of old shorts and grabbed a large sweatshirt out of her drawers, opting for comfort instead of looks. She slipped on her comfy bunny rabbit slippers and then tied her still damp hair into a messy ponytail and then bounded out of her room.

"Ommph!" she cried, reeling backwards after slamming face first into something solid.

"Sorry short stuff," Gajeel grunted, rubbing his stomach where she had slammed into it, "I was uh…" he trailed off as he stared at the small woman in front of him. The faded sweatshirt she wore completely dwarfed her whole figure and he immediately imagined her chilling in one of his own shirts.

He had to admit, he liked the idea.

Her wet hair clung to the back of her neck in a way that was so inexplicably _sexy _he had to fight the groan that was bubbling up in the back of his throat.

"You were what?" Levy asked suspiciously, wondering why he was staring at her like she was something to eat.

He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the frankly quite perverted thoughts he was thinking, "you got a spare toothbrush?"

"Hm? Oh! Oh yes," she turned around and disappeared back into her bedroom coming back out a while later with a freshly packaged toothbrush in her hands, "um…the bathrooms just down the hall."

"Thanks shortie, breakfast's on the table."

She nodded to him and then bounded off to the kitchen, eager to find out just what was exuding the pleasant smell coming from it.

"Why can't my stuff smell like this," she grumbled as she pushed open the kitchen door and stared eagerly at the breakfast he had made for them.

Bacon, sausages, eggs, toast and pancakes were all placed on plates in the middle and a jug of orange juice was stood next to them. There were two empty plates placed in front of each seat.

She noticed, with a twitch of her eyes, that practically every cupboard had been thrown open and rummaged through messily. Apparently Gajeel's neat freak tendencies didn't apply to apartments that were not his own.

Still, she decided she wouldn't mind tidying up after him considering he had made such a delicious looking meal in such a short space of time.

She settled herself down in one of the empty seats and waited patiently for Gajeel to return, feeling guilty about starting without him.

"This looks so yummy," she moaned, staring at one of the perfectly circular golden pancakes that sat on a plate in front of her. All her attempts at pancakes ended up coming out in weird shapes and were often too undercooked or burnt to even consider eating.

"That's 'cause it is," Gajeel said cockily, returning back into the room. He flung himself into the chair and quickly started helping himself to the food.

Levy copied him and within seconds the pair were happily chomping away on the breakfast Gajeel had made for them. And it didn't disappoint. Levy had no idea that the sparse selection of food she kept in her cupboards could make such a nice meal."

The pancakes, though not her favourite blueberry ones, rivalled the ones her mother would make for her.

"I could get used to this," she mumbled through a mouthful of pancake. Waking up in the morning with Gajeel next to her and then the pair sharing a delicious breakfast wasn't a bad way to start the day she thought.

"Mmm," Gajeel hummed, secretly thinking the same thing. He still hadn't quite gotten over just how appealing Levy was to him and he couldn't for the life of him understand how she was single.

"Sorry about this morning," Levy apologised suddenly, putting down her knife and fork, "I…um…I was supposed to wake up before you."

Deciding not to comment on the fact that he _definitely _had no problems with waking up in the same bed as her and would gladly do it again, Gajeel decided to voice the question that had been bugging him since he woke up.

"Why am I here?" he asked with a frown, "normally one of the guys lets me crash on their sofa or something."

Levy giggled, "you don't remember much of last night do you?"

"Not a damn thing," he replied earnestly, furrowing his brows as he tried to recall his actions, "the last thing I remember is Laxus dropping like a little bitch, _gihihihi_!"

Levy rolled her eyes, "_typical_," she muttered just quiet enough for Gajeel to pretend he hadn't heard, "well you were too drunk to drive home safely…"

"Understandable…"

"And Juvia offered to drop you home, but I felt bad making her go out of her way so late at night. So…I…well, I said you could crash at mine."

"So you decided to crawl into bed with me cause you wanted to take advantage of my drunken state, huh?" he teased.

"No!" Levy squealed, "_you _grabbed me and I couldn't get out so I just fell asleep. And if anyone was taking advantage it was you with your hand up my shirt this morning you perv!"

"Don't flatter yourself shortie, that was an accident," he said quickly, deciding it was mainly true. He had _accidentally _forgotten to remove his hand before she woke up after all.

Levy snorted as she speared a piece of bacon with her fork and chewed on it, "sure…sure…"

"You have got to meet my mother," she said suddenly, fighting the urge to roll her eyes as she mixed some of the bacon with her pancake and found her mouth exploding at the wonderful concoction of tastes going on inside, "she's going to love you."

Gajeel smiled faintly, "yeah…I think I remember you saying that before," her admission that she actually wanted him to meet her mother left him feeling oddly warm.

Nobody had ever really expressed any wishes for him to meet someone important to him before.

"You're different Shrimp," he said fondly.

"Is that a good thing?" she asked sceptically.

"Yeah."

He decided that he liked "different".

.

.

.

"Are you sure you don't want help?" he asked, raising an eyebrow as he stared around her frankly filthy kitchen, "I made a little mess"

"It's like a tornado rampaged around here," Levy agreed, but she smiled and shook her head, "I'll be fine though. You have work tonight later right, you probably want to have a shower and relax."

He shrugged, not wanting to say that he'd happily go to work tired as hell if it meant he got to spend a few more hours with her, but the thought sounded so horribly pansy-like he immediately banished it from his head.

"I guess…" he felt awkward, which was strange since he rarely felt that way, "well thanks for last night and uh...I guess I owe you one?"

She had been about to shrug him off and tell him not to worry and that they were friends and when one friend is drunk letting the other crash at your house was just what people did, but an idea came into her mind and she grinned up at him evilly.

"You owe me one you say?"

He frowned, not understanding her implications, "yeah, I guess so."

"Excellent!"

He took a wary step backwards and hit the back of the closed door, "I don't like your tone of voice…"

She waggled her eyebrows mysteriously, "no take backs Gajeel!"

"What are you planning damn it?" he growled.

She giggled before deciding that she was torturing him enough. She used her forefinger to beckon him closer and then whispered just what she had in mind for him in his ear.

"Hell. No," he growled upon hearing what she had for him, "no way. Not a chance in hell!"

She simply laughed and said, "I'll see you on Monday," ignoring his howls of protest.

.

.

.

Lucy swivelled around on her chair and sighed.

Working Saturday's was _the worst_, especially when she was already sporting a mild hangover from the previous night.

She was bored.

There was no filing to be done.

No idiots were burning down their homes.

Not even any cats were stuck up in trees desperately needing to be rescued.

She sighed again and briefly considered sneaking out to find someone to talk to. Almost as soon as that thought entered her mind a head of red hair sauntered past her window and she shivered.

"It's as if she can read my mind," she grumbled as Erza peered at her suspiciously before walking away.

Resigning herself to the fact that she had a few more hours of solitude before she would be able to escape and crawl back into her bed she rested her head on her desk, hoping that Erza wouldn't catch her snoozing.

She was just about to zone out completely when the sound of her door being pushed opened snapped her out of her sleepy state.

"I'm up, I'm up," she slurred, pulling her hair that had stuck to her face with drool away from her, "don't kill me."

Juvia giggled as she closed Lucy's office door behind her, "do not worry Lucy. It's just Juvia."

Lucy sighed in relief, "I thought I was a goner for a second, what's up anyway Juvia?"

Juvia sat down on the seat in front Lucy's desk and leaned forward, "Juvia has some information," she whispered conspiratorially.

Her attention peaked; Lucy leaned forward so she could hear what her blue haired friend was saying, "explain."

Feeling like she was betraying her friend, Juvia hesitated for a moment or two before launching into her story, "last night Gajeel stayed over at Levy's."

"No….way…." Lucy breathed, "I wondered where they went! One second she was next to me, the next she was gone!"

"Yes, well, Juvia offered to take Gajeel home but Levy declined. So he stayed at her house."

"Do you think they did anything?"

Juvia blushed, "Juvia does not like to think of things like that!"

"You are such a prude," Lucy sighed, half-heartedly wishing it was Cana or Mirajane who had come to her with the information. They were never afraid to talk about the dirty stuff.

"Anyway," Juvia pressed, "Juvia likes Levy. Levy is good for Gajeel."

Lucy had to agree, though they hadn't known each other for a very long time she already adored the bubbly bluette and found she was an excellent addition to the group who frequented the bar.

"But Gajeel…Gajeel is not good with things like relationships. Juvia does not want him to ruin it!"

Once again, Lucy found herself nodding in agreement.

Gajeel was _ridiculously _dense when it came to females, feelings and all that stuff. She hated to think about Levy getting hurt because Gajeel was too dense to understand what he was doing.

"So what do you want to do about it?"

"Juvia was wondering if you could get Natsu to talk to him."

"Why Natsu? Why not Lily?" Lucy asked, confused. Gajeel and Natsu had a fairly good relationship, but she had always gained the impression that Gajeel and Lily were like brothers.

Juvia shook her head, "Lily is different to Gajeel. He will just frustrate him. Natsu and Gajeel are more alike. And Natsu has experience in this department."

Lucy had to admit, both Natsu and Gajeel were hot headed idiots whilst Lily was a romantic through and through, "but what do you mean more experience?" she asked with a frown, "Natsu's been single for years now."

Juvia's eyebrows rose into her hairline, "really Lucy?" she deadpanned, wondering why all her friends were in denial about their love lives. They called _her _crazy about her –totally NOT an – obsession with Gray, but at least she was honest about her feelings.

Lucy blushed, but refused to breech the topic about her and Natsu, not even she was sure about what was going on there. Instead she swiftly moved back to the Gajeel and Levy topic,

"I'll get Natsu to talk to him, don't worry."

"Thank you Lucy," Juvia stood up out of her seat quickly, "now Juvia should be getting back before Erza returns."

Laughing, Lucy waved her friend out of her office and resumed swivelling aimlessly on her chair, her thoughts on Gajeel and Levy.

She smiled brightly, "they _are _quite the cute couple," she mused.

.

.

.

**A/N: **I'm getting better at this updating regularly thing huh? Soooo who can guess what Levy asked Gajeel to do? Muhaahahha, next chapter you shall find out ^_^

Review, leave your theories as to what it is guys!

THANK YOU :)


	14. Chapter 14

**Smokin' Hot**

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?' and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."

**14; **School

Kaitlin Frenworth was quite a perceptive young girl, and so when her favourite teacher bounded into the classroom with a wide grin on her face, she figured something good was going to happen.

Myles Smith was _not _a very perceptive young boy, and even he knew something good was going to happen when Miss McGarden entered their classroom with a huge grin on her face.

If Levy had known how obviously her emotions were showing, she might've reined in her emotions. But probably not, she was very excited after all.

"Good-morning class," she called brightly, settling herself into the seat behind the large teachers desk as she watched her tiny class scramble for their own seats.

"Good-morning Miss McGarden," they chorused dutifully back to her, matching grins on their faces.

"I have some good news and some bad news. What do you want first?"

Immediately she heard them scream their answers back to her, and she briefly wondered why 7 and 8 year olds didn't seem to have the ability to talk quietly. She was more than used to the deafening din her class could rumble up, but she couldn't deny she would have preferred they spoke quieter.

"Right," she said loudly and the immediately quietened, "bad news first it is!"

The few who had shouted out that they wanted to hear the good news first groaned loudly.

"Mrs Mashima is ill, so she won't be in today," she paused as the whole class gasped and groaned, making her smile. She liked knowing that her class genuinely like their teachers, "so, later in the afternoon we'll be making her some Get Well Soon cards, ok?"

They whooped and cheered, excited by the prospect of spending the afternoon doing arts and crafts.

"Is that the good news Miss?" a boy with jet black hair asked curiously.

She shook her head, "no Myles, the good news is…drum roll please!"

They obediently slammed their open palms into their desks, creating the necessary amount of noise Levy required. Once they quietened down Levy stood up and smiled brightly around the room,

"In an hour or so, we will be having a _very _special guest. A fireman from the Magnolia Fire Department is going to come in and teach you about fire safety for the afternoon, and…he should have a few fun activities lined up for you!" she said the last part a bit quieter, realising she didn't actually know if Gajeel had actually prepared any activities considering he only replied to her text message with ": ".

Either way, her class didn't seem to hear her slight dip in tone and were soon cheering happily at the prospect of the special visit. Firehouse days were notoriously fun and well received amongst the kids at the school and Levy's class had been wondering when they would have their turn.

Happy that they seemed fairly excited, Levy strode towards the white board and picked up a marker, "until he arrives though…get out your handwriting books and lets practise your cursive!"

She ignored their groans of protest.

.

.

.

Lucy frowned.

Erza glared.

Juvia winced.

Natsu and Gray both laughed.

Mirajane sighed and shook her head.

Cana yawned, quickly regretting her decision to go on a pub crawl with Macao the night before.

"Its," _BANG_, "not_," BANG, _"FAIR!" **BANG. **

"Gajeel…" Juvia said worriedly, deciding that standing in the doorway staring at him apprehensively wasn't going to do much good, "are you okay Gajeel?"

"Does it look like I'm ok?" he howled, before continuing to slam his head repeatedly on the desk in front of him.

"N-no?" she stammered, "Juvia is confused!" she wailed, turning round to face her friends who were still standing in the doorway, "_help_!" she mouthed towards them.

Natsu and Gray both shook their heads immediately and attempted to take a few quick steps backwards. Lucy and Erza both shoved them forwards and they fell into the room.

"We should help a friend in need," Erza said primly, following them into the room.

"Is that why you stood glaring at him for the last half hour instead of helping him?" Natsu mumbled just quietly enough so Erza couldn't hear and kick his ass for it.

"Is he ill?" Mira asked quietly, wincing as his head hit the wooden table so hard she felt it might splinter, "and shouldn't we really stop him before he does some permanent damage?"

"Leave him," Cana said dismissively as she flung herself into an empty chair, "it might do him some good."

"Don't be so cruel Cana!" Juvia admonished, "something is very wrong with Gajeel. Juvia does not think slamming your head into a table is normal behaviour."

Cana rolled her eyes, she was always amazed at Juvia's ability to state the obvious without knowing what she was doing.

Deciding that her colleagues were about as useless as that random bag of salt you get with new shoes, Lucy strolled forwards and placed a gentle hand on Gajeel's forearm, "Gajeel," she said firmly, "what are you doing?"

"Tryna knock some sense into myself cause clearly I lost it a while ago," he grumbled.

"Well I'm going to have to ask you stop. I can hear you from my office and you're becoming quite distracting."

"Tch," Gray snorted, "like you were doing any work anyway."

Lucy steadily ignored his statement, making a mental note to trip him up in the corridor later.

"_As_ I was saying, I need you to stop slamming your head into your desk, ok?"

He sighed and slumped into his seat, "fine. It wasn't doing much good anyway."

Lucy smiled smugly, happy to have stopped her friend from killing all of his brain cells - she wasn't sure he had many left after all.

"Juvia still wants to know why you were doing it!" Juvia huffed, still looking extremely concerned.

"Blame the Shrimp."

"Your nicknames have _got _to stop," Natsu shook his head, "it's pretty sad that we all know who you're talking about you know."

Everyone nodded in agreement. Gajeel's poor nicknaming ability was something they had yet to beat out of him. Not that Erza hadn't tried when he had mistakenly called her "Strawberry." He now called her "Titania" thanks to the beating he had received, and although she didn't like it that much she had decided it was a million times better than Strawberry.

Gajeel simply grunted.

"What's Levy done?" Mira asked curiously, her gossip-sense tingling. Beside her, Cana perked up just a little, she was never one to sit idle when juicy gossip was forming around her after all.

Gajeel shuddered, "the most evil thing anyone could have ever done to me."

"Really?" Gray asked with a frown, "I find that hard to believe."

"Yeah," Lucy echoed, "Levy's a sweetheart."

"HA!" Gajeel spat, "that's just what she _wants _you to think! Really she's evil! You hear me? _EVIL!"_

It was completely unheard of to find Gajeel reacting to someone like this, and so they were all understandably worried that Levy had a previously unseen dark side to her that none of them had noticed.

"What did she do exactly?" Erza asked, wanting to get to the bottom of it.

"She…ughghhhhh," he growled and buried his face in his hands, "she's making me come into her school to talk to her damn brats!"

A shocked silence followed his words.

Loud laughter quickly followed the silence.

"_That's it_?" Natsu howled, clutching his ribs, "you're going all crazy because you don't wanna talk to some kids?"

"It's not funny!" Gajeel roared, wondering why nobody understood just how catastrophic this was going to be, "spending a day with sticky, bratty, loud kids I can't even kick to shut 'em up? This is torture!"

"Oh Gajeel," Juvia sighed, "Juvia was really worried about you for a moment."

"Continue to be worried!"

"I can't believe she actually pulled it off," Lucy whistled in awe, "she really is amazing."

"Don't encourage her damn it!"

"Oi, Gajeel!" Cana suddenly barked, a sly grin on her face that he just _knew _he didn't like the look of.

"What?" he replied suspiciously.

"You know what you are right?"

"No…"

"Natsu? Gray? You know what he is right?"

Both men chuckled evilly.

"What the hell ar-"

Cana, Natsu and Gray all simultaneously made the sound of a whip being lashed and flicked their wrists forward, _"whipped_."

"I am not whipped you bastards!"

"Well," Mira said thoughtfully, "you're going to her school today to talk to children, something not even Erza's managed to make you do, no matter how many threats she throws your way."

"That is very true," Juvia agreed, "perhaps Gajeel really is whipped!"

Gajeel groaned loudly as he watched his only ally go to the other side.

"Come on man," Gray laughed, "you're not even dating and she's got you whipped?"

"I'm no-"

"They're not dating?" Erza asked in confusion, "I thought they were."

"They are dating," Mira nodded sagely, as if her saying the words would speak it into existence.

"No…no…I don't think they are," Lucy added, "they only slept together."

A second silence followed her words.

"What the _hell_?" Gajeel blurted out, his face reddening with each passing second, "who the hell told you that?"

Lucy immediately turned to stare at Juvia who conveniently found something extremely fascinating to stare at on her fingernails.

"Juvia…" Gajeel growled, ready to pounce on his oldest friend in the room. She wasn't normally one for mindless gossip, so he was fairly shocked by the revelation.

"Juvia did not say you slept together exactly," she whimpered softly, "Juvia just told Lucy how you slept at her house this weekend."

"And you took from that that we slept together?" he rounded on Lucy this time.

She simply shrugged, "you're a hot blooded male, she's a very pretty female you appear to be attracted to. I thought it was a pretty logical conclusion to reach."

"Don't think I'm like your flame headed lover boy," he growled, "_I _can control myself."

"Hey, hey!" Lucy waved her hands in front of her face, "we're not discussing _my _love life, thank you very much."

"Yeah," Natsu added, "and I can control myself you jerk. We didn't do anything last night! Except t-"

"_Thank you Natsu_," Lucy cried shrilly, silencing him straight away.

Mira and Cana both exchanged knowing looks.

"Anyway," Lucy continued, fighting the blush that was rapidly creeping up her neck, "what I'm saying is…most people would assume you slept together. So don't blame me."

"Well we didn't. I passed out pretty soon," he admitted reluctantly.

"Suuure you did," Gray sniggered, "pretty handy excuse you got there."

"Gajeel was very drunk," Juvia added helpfully, "and Juvia do not think Levy would sleep with Gajeel."

"Why the hell not?" he snapped angrily.

"Moving _on_," Erza said loudly. Unlike Lucy, Mira, and Cana, she didn't gain pleasure from gossiping about her friends love lives, "you and Levy are not dating, correct?"

"Correct."

"But he _wants _to date her," Mira said, "I can see it in his eyes."

"She likes him too," Lucy said, "it's way too obvious."

"They'd have such cute babies," Mira cooed, "a little boy with dark blue hair and a little girl with long black locks!" she squealed happily and sighed, immediately falling into a daydream about the nonexistent children.

"I need new friends," Gajeel mumbled, pushing himself out of his seat, "you're all crazy."

"Where're you going?" Juvia asked, noticing that he was moving towards the other exit in the room.

"Fresh air before I walk willingly into my doom," he said bluntly before pulling the door open and leaving without a word more.

"Well…" Lucy sighed loudly, "that was interesting, huh?"

"He really likes her doesn't he?" Juvia asked, still staring at the door he had just exited from, "Juvia has never seen him go this far for anyone else before. Not even Juvia."

"He's like a school kid," Cana snorted, reclining back onto her seat so her legs were resting on the desk, (she expertly ignored Erza's cries for her to "get your damn feet off the paperwork!"), "getting all flustered by our questions."

"That's because Gajeel doesn't have much experience with…_love_," Juvia said, defending her friend.

Everyone ignored the way she turned and stared at Gray when she uttered the word love. Especially Gray, he ignored it more than everyone.

Remembering their conversation from the previous day, Lucy quickly strode across the room and grabbed Natsu by his shirt, "be back in a sec guys," she hollered before dragging him out of the room.

"Don't kiss for too long!" Cana catcalled after them, "keep it pg13 please, this is a place of work after all!"

"What the hell Luce," Natsu grumbled after closing the door behind them, "are you still mad about that thing I said back there? Cause it just slipped out I swear! I don't see why we can't tell the-"

He was silenced by Lucy pressing her forefinger against his lips, a long suffering look on her face.

"It's not that we _can't _tell them," she sighed, wondering how many times they had had this conversation, "but you've seen how they're taking this whole Gajeel and Levy thing. I don't need that sort of inspection in my love life. Not now anyway."

Natsu rolled his eyes, "they all know anyway."

"They all _think _they know."

Natsu laughed, "is that what you dragged me out here for?"

"No, it's actually about Gajeel. I was wondering if you could talk to him?"

Natsu frowned, "about what?"

"Levy!"

"I'm lost."

"You heard what Juvia said. Gajeel isn't great with this whole romance thing, and I really like Levy. I don't want her getting hurt because Gajeel's an idiot. So, I figure if you talk to him, you know, give him some pointers. That kind of stuff?"

Natsu stared at his [secret] girlfriend with a bemused look on his face.

"I thought _I _was an idiot?"

"You are," Lucy replied quickly, "you are just less of an idiot than he is. Now _go_, before he goes to her school. With the mood he's in, he'll probably ruin everything there."

"Yeah, yeah," he said dutifully, "you owe me for this."

"You can stay round tonight."

His answering grin made her cackle with laughter.

.

.

.

He glared at the microwave, "hurry up," he grumbled, watching his bowl of noodles spin excruciatingly slowly inside it. He glanced up at the clock on the wall and noted her had only about an hour before he was due to be at Levy's school. And he hadn't planned for anything.

She was going to flip at him.

"Good," he decided that if he was going to be miserable than so would she. It was her damn fault anyway.

"Ugh, your face is such an eyesore."

Gajeel turned around to find Natsu flinging himself into one of the chairs at the small table they kept in the kitchen, "get lost," he snarled, turning back to the microwave just as it pinged. Without even heeding just how hot it could be, he pulled open the door and tugged the bowl out.

"Can't," Natsu replied nonchalantly, "Lucy will kill me if she doesn't think we really have this talk."

"And I'm supposedly the whipped one," Gajeel snorted, sitting down at the table with his noodles, "and what talk?"

"She wants me to make sure you don't mess up with Levy," he said honestly, deciding there was no point in beating around the bush with it all.

"There ain't nothing to mess up," he muttered through a mouthful of noodles.

Natsu simply shook his head, "so you're in the denial stage of things, huh?"

"Huh?" noodles dripped down his mouth as he stared at Natsu quizzically, "denial 'bout what?"

"It's a completely natural stage," Natsu continued wisely, "I went through it myself, you know?"

Gajeel glared at him, "don't talk to me like you're better than me you idiot."

"I'm not the one in denial about his feelings…"

"I'm not in denial. I just don't need to talk about my fee-…about my personal life with a jerk like you."

"It doesn't make you a weaker person to admit you like someone," Natsu frowned, he didn't know much about Gajeel's past but he knew he had not had an easy upbringing. He guessed that was part of the reason he was so reluctant to open up to anyone nowadays.

"You've got a good thing going with Levy," he continued, unusually sternly, "she's a nice girl who for some reason actually likes you, don't lose that."

Gajeel had to admit, Natsu had a point there.

Levy _was _a nice girl. Heck, he secretly thought she was amazing, but Natsu didn't need to know that.

"You ever wonder if she's too nice for you?" he asked suddenly, voicing a thought that had been nagging him at the back of his mind for quite a while now.

Natsu smiled a little, "all the time."

"And you still stay?"

He shrugged, "what I think and what she thinks are two completely different things. If she's happy with me, I'm not gonna ruin it cause of my own insecurities."

"Hm," Gajeel hummed thoughtfully and leaned back in his seat. It was not often Natsu said anything so profound to him. Normally his excitable colleague spent all him time rambling about complete nonsense that he had learnt to expertly drown out.

Natsu smirked as he watched Gajeel contemplate his words. Since Gajeel had joined the fire house, the two had developed a fairly decent relationship. It was nothing on par with the lifelong friendship he had developed with Gray, but it was a pretty good one. As such, Natsu had come to see a lot of himself in Gajeel.

They were both stubborn as hell and had a strange reluctance to admit their true feelings. Gajeel was a hundred times worse than Natsu in regards to the latter, Natsu was at least willing to admit he had a problem with expressing his emotions. Gajeel on the other hand preferred to sit and ignore the fact he actually had any emotions in the first place.

"Hn, maybe you've got a point," Gajeel conceded. A comfortable silence passed between the two for a few moments, before Gajeel's lips turned upwards into an evil looking smirk, "so you and Lucy huh?"

Natsu's eyes narrowed, "not a damn word jackass."

"Now who's in denial…"

.

.

.

Levy strummed her fingers impatiently on her desk.

He was late.

Only by five minutes so, but still…late was late, and his tardiness wasn't doing much to alleviate her nerves. It didn't help that her class were becoming more and more restless with each passing second, there was only so much handwriting practice you could make a bunch of 7 and 8 year olds do before they started glaring at you mutinously after all.

"Miss McGarden," a girl with bright blonde hair pulled into pigtails moaned, "when is the fireman getting here?"

Levy took a deep breath and fixed a bright smile on her face, "any second now Kaitlin, he's just running a bit late."

Kaitlin huffed and slumped downwards in her seat, clearly bored of simply sitting idle waiting for the appearance of the mystery fireman. Levy didn't blame their restlessness, even she was beginning to tire of waiting for Gajeel.

He had sent her no message explaining he'd be late a little bit, and she couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling he had bailed on her.

He hadn't hidden his reluctance to attend her school, and she decided she didn't put it past him to simply not turn up.

With each passing second she found her frustration growing rapidly.

_Jerk_, she hissed to herself, trying to come up with an excuse to relay to her sure to be disappointed class, whilst simultaneously trying to come up with a way to impart some serious bodily harm on Gajeel whenever she next saw him.

Just as her thoughts began to take a particularly violent turn, she heard a sharp knock on her door.

"Come in!"

The class watched with interest as the door was pushed open and the mousy head secretary poked her head in, "Miss McGarden," she said politely, "you…erm…you're expecting a visit from the fire department today?" she asked uncertainly.

"I am, indeed," Levy said through gritted teeth, expecting the secretary to relay a message from Gajeel about him being unable to attend.

To her surprise the secretary sighed in relief, "_good_," she huffed, "so this man here is for you then!" she pushed open the door further to reveal an extremely uncomfortable looking Gajeel dressed in full fireman's attire.

"Woaaaaaah," her class breathed as they took him in.

"Woah," Levy had to agree. She had forgotten just how good Gajeel looking in his uniform.

"Normally we get Ms Scarlet or Miss Strauss," the secretary continued, still looking at Gajeel uncertainly, "but Mr Redfox assured me you were expecting him, so I thought I just confirm."

Levy giggled, understanding right away why she had been so uncertain of Gajeel at first. He certainly didn't look like a typical fireman.

"Thank you Eileen," Levy said politely, "I'll take over from here."

Eileen hesitated for just a moment longer before shaking her head and leaving Gajeel standing awkwardly in the doorframe.

Levy smiled brightly and stood up, "class, I'd like to introduce you to Gajeel Redfox. Say hello!"

"Good afternoon Mr Redfox!" they sung, staring up at him in awe.

"Uh…" Gajeel grunted, taking a step forward into the room and closing the door behind him, "hey?"

Levy couldn't help but laugh as she watched him awkwardly stare around the room of small children, scratching the back of his head nervously. It was so clear that he was out of his comfort zone, it was almost endearing.

Deciding she was torturing him enough, she stepped away from her desk and walked towards him, "guys, I need you to rearrange your chairs in a circle over by the carpet area, I'll be back with Mr Redfox in two minutes," once she saw to it they were doing what she asked she turned back to Gajeel and inclined her head towards a corner of the room where they could talk without being overheard.

"I have to admit," Levy said quietly, "I thought you'd bailed on me."

Gajeel scoffed, "nah, I'd never hear the end of it if I did," he replied, opting not to mention the fact that bailing on her had been a very tempting choice before he'd spoken with Natsu.

"I'm glad you came," she said honestly, "the kids are really excited!"

He rolled his eyes, "yeah yeah, let's just get this torture over and done with."

"Act a little happier please!" she scolded, slapping him lightly on the chest, "these fire house days have a really good reputation here, I don't want them to be the only class to have a terrible one!"

"Then ya probably should've asked Erza or something," he replied curtly before whirling around to face the class, "alright brats!" he roared.

"_Gajeel_!"

"Who wants to learn how to not burn to death in a fire?"

The class cheered in excitement.

Levy whimpered.

.

.

.

She had to hand it to him, he was doing a better job than she had been anticipating. She had never seen _anyone _interact with children the way he did, but the class seemed to be taking his abrasive attitude fairly well, so she decided not to intervene. As long as he didn't reduce anyone to tears.

"Alright," he grunted to the children who were sat in a circle around him, "I was forced to come here today and lecture you brats about fire safety. So that's what we're gonna do. I don't wanna hear any moaning or crying about how boring it is, you just sit there and enjoy it, got it?"

"Aye sir!" they yelled, most of them grinning at his choice of wording, it was exciting.

"We're gonna do a quiz," he said suddenly, "and the winner gets…I dunno…your teacher will buy you some chocolates or something," he finished lamely, shooting Levy a grin.

She glared at him.

"Question 1: How long does it take for a fire to get out of control?"

"Five minutes?"

"TEN!"

"That's way too long you idiot!"

"I'm not an idiot!"

"You are…I say five minutes too!"

"FOUR MINUTES!"

Once they had quietened down, Gajeel tittered and shook his head, "you're all wrong. Tch, you lot suck."

"_Gajeel_," Levy hissed, "they are 7 and 8 years old!"

He shrugged, it didn't appear the class minded his light insult anyway.

"How long does it take Mr Redfox?" a red headed girl cocked her head to the side.

"What's your name, kid?"

"S-Stacey.!"

He crouched down onto his haunches so he was on eyelevel with her and said very seriously, "it only needs about thirty seconds for a fire to get out of control. You got that?"

Looking horror stricken, Stacey nodded her head slowly.

"Fire isn't a joke," he said sternly, standing up right to stare at the whole class, "if you even suspect a contained fire is going to go out of control, you do everything in your power to stop it right there. Or, get the heck out of the vicinity and call the fire department, understand?"

As her class nodded and Gajeel moved onto the next question, she felt her admiration levels rising for the man in front of her.

The dedication he had to his job was obvious for everyone to see.

As much as he loathed the idea of coming into her class and talking to the children, it was clear just how important it was to him that he had imparted the idea of fire safety into them. She remembered the conversation they had in his car about the little girl who had died in his home, and she wondered if that had any impact of his clear determinedness to teach the children about safety.

"Question 3!" he bellowed and snapping Levy out of her thoughts as she realised she had completely missed question 2, "and you guys better get this one right, otherwise it looks like your teacher's buying _me _some chocolate, _gihihihi_! What's the biggest killer in a fire?"

"Huh?"

"The fire…duh?"

"The _flamessssss_!"

"YUP!"

Levy giggled as she watched Gajeel shake his head and the class subsequently groaned and slumped down in their seats in defeat.

"Smoke. Most times, you'll pass out from smoke inhalation and then the poisonous gases in the smoke will kill you."

Levy winced at his bluntness, but decided to let it slide. It was something they needed to hear. She knew first hand just how fires could be and she thought it was important that they knew.

"If you're ever in a situation where you're stuck somewhere where a fire's raging. Stay low and keep your mouth and nose covered. Try not to panic as well."

"Why do we have to stay low?" Myles asked in confusion.

"Smoke rises, the lower to the ground you are, the less smoke you'll have in your face. You're all midgets anyway, like your teacher, so that shouldn't be a problem."

"Hey!" Levy cried, "don't insult me in front of my class!"

Gajeel laughed along with her class, "so I won the quiz, looks like you owe me chocolate _Miss McGarden," _he said and Levy wondered if she was imagining the way he purred her name. Either way, it made her blush and she quickly looked away.

For the next half an hour, Gajeel took them through all the basics of surviving a fire. He taught them the "Stop, Drop, & Roll" technique, how to spot a potential fire, and how to make sure everyone in your building was out of the building. He barked at them, threatened to kick Myles several times and laughed openly at them, and yet the children still seemed to hang on his every word.

It was an odd gift he had, and she found herself envying it.

When she had first started at the school, it had taken weeks for her to gain that respect over her class. She loved all the children now, but she remembered just how loud, rude and disrespectful they had been towards her at first. As she watched him hand out pieces of paper to the class, she smirked. He was a lot better with children than he gave himself credit for.

"Ok, listen up, cause I'm only going to say this once," he barked suddenly, once everyone had in their hands a piece of paper and a handful of crayons. They all sat up attentively, "you've got…" he glanced up at the clock, "fifteen minutes to create a fire awareness poster with all the things I've taught you today on it. Winner gets chocolates, courtesy of your teacher."

Whilst they all whooped and cheered and got to work creating their masterpieces, Gajeel to the opportunity to walk to where Levy sat observing them all.

"Like what you've seen?" he asked, casually leaning against her desk.

"Apart from the whole insulting me in front of my class thing, I think you've done a pretty good job," she said with a smile, "you're not as bad you made yourself out to be."

His face reddened a tiny bit at her compliment, "yeah…well your kids aren't as bratty as I thought they'd be…I guess."

"I'm sure they'll be very pleased to hear that."

The pair watched as the class noisily made their posters for Gajeel. Once the fifteen minutes had passed, Gajeel called them all to attention and spent five or so minutes wandering around the class, inspecting their work.

"Hmm, not bad."

"I guess it's passable."

"What the heck is that?"

"…_my…my puppy…"_

"Oh…"

Levy watched in amusement as he harshly critiqued their work. Whilst she took the, "wow it's so amazing" route when marking her class' artwork, Gajeel was much more crass though she noted he still seemed to manage to find something kind to say about every piece of work. He was more considerate than he wanted her to think.

"I've picked a winner," he announced after walking around, "_you_!" he pointed at a tall boy sat in the back, "what's your name Lanky?"

Levy shook her head at the nickname, and made a mental note to apologise to the poor boy on Gajeel's behalf later on.

"Trei, Mr Redfox."

"Yeah well, Trei you win. Ask your teacher for your chocolate later," he held up Trei's work. It was a poster of a burning building in the background and a young boy dressed as a superman stood in the foreground with a crying woman and baby under both his arms. Bullet pointed information was dotted around the white space.

Levy had to admit, it was extremely creative, so she decided she didn't mind forking out for a chocolate bar.

"That's it for me," Gajeel continued, "uh…so…yeah."

Levy giggled and shook her head, pushing herself up from her seat. She opened her mouth to address the class, but at that moment a loud shrill bell rang out, signalling a break for the class.

They immediately began screeching and shouting, excited for the prospect of stretching their legs outside for a bit.

"Don't forget to grab your coats!" Levy yelled as they all started flocking outside.

"Yes Miss!" they sung.

Levy watched carefully as they all left the room, shouting excitedly at one another about their interesting session with Gajeel.

The door closed behind the final child and they were finally alone in the classroom.

"I gotta admit," Gajeel said heavily after a few moments of awkward silence, "I wasn't looking forward to this."

Levy put on a look of mock surprise, "really? From your polite text messages to me in the run up to today, I never would've guessed."

"Ha, ha," he deadpanned, "but yeah…it wasn't too bad. I can see why Erza does it so often."

"Maybe you should come in next week," Levy asked brightly, "the second year class hasn't had a visit in a while, I'm sure I could arrange something!""Don't push your luck short stuff."

She threw her head back and laughed, "Thank you for this Gajeel. They really enjoyed themselves, and I did too. You look very handsome in your uniform," she added quickly, not really thinking about what she was saying.

He chuckled, "you don't look too bad yourself," he said with a sly grin, "the whole homely teacher thing is a good look for you."

"Which is why you should come in more often," Levy retorted back, vaguely understanding in the back of her mind she was flirting pretty hard with him.

Gajeel didn't reply, instead he crossed the short distance to her and stopped just before her.

"Gajeel?"

Again he didn't reply, a small frown was etched into his face as he remembered the conversation he had had with Natsu earlier.

He _really _didn't want to mess things up with Levy.

The way he saw it he had two options.

Either he could leave things the way they were and continue this odd flirtatious dance they did where neither of them said anything about their true feelings.

Or…he could make a move.

Both options were equally terrifying.

On the one hand, not making a move could result in her getting bored and moving on.

On the other hand, making a move could result in him receiving one slap to the face and the end of their odd little friendship.

He swallowed thickly and made his decision.

"Gajeel what are you-"

"Shut up," he murmured before pulling her in and crashing his lips upon her own.

She tensed up briefly, eyes wide as she tried to understand just what the hell was happening. All too soon the oddly nice sensation of his lips pressed against her own kicked in and she responded eagerly.

Almost immediately he groaned in pleasure as her soft lips caressed his own and he was quite pleased to hear her own little moan as well.

In just a few seconds she had parted her lips, allowing his tongue to dive inside and explore a part of her he had yet to meet. She pressed her body flush against his own and wrapped her arms around his neck. He grunted at the sudden body contact and pushed her against her desk.

"Ga-Gajeel," she moaned as he cupped her bottom and lifted her onto her desk so he could nestle himself comfortably between her legs. He did not respond and instead opted on giving her neck the same treatment he had been applying to her lips. He peppered her soft neck with harsh kisses and somewhere in the back of his mind he recognised that they would probably leave a mark. He half considered stopping and returning to her lips, but her groan of satisfaction encouraged him to keep going wit his ministrations.

Levy thought she was in heaven. It had never, ever, _ever_, felt like this before. She felt like her whole body was on fire, and she wondered just how it had gotten so steamy so fast. One moment they had been engaging in their normal bout of teasing and the next she was pressed up against her next with Gajeel doing wonderful, oh so wonderful, things to her neck. She couldn't stop the embarrassingly high pitched moans of pleasure from slipping out of her mouth.

It had never been like this with David. Simple kisses had never elicited gasps of pleasure from her, but Gajeel did it with ease. His hands moved from cupping her cheeks and slid down her body. She shivered as she felt his calloused palm run up the side of her waist and begin teasing the material of her jumper upwards.

She was in two minds.

One part of her wanted him to continue with what he was doing and never stop.

The other part was all too aware of the fact that the children would be returning to the classroom soon and explaining to them why she was pushed up on her desk with Gajeel in between her legs would have been nigh on impossible to do.

"Gajeel," she said in what she intended to be a firm voice, but instead came out raspy and moany.

"What?" he grunted, still slowly lifting up her jumper. It struck her just how deep his voice had become and she quickly decided his lust filled voice was definitely her favourite.

"We have to…to stop."

"Don't wanna."

She giggled as his lips pulled up from her neck and began to ghost over her own lips once again.

"But we _have _to. The children will see."

"They've gotta learn about this stuff someday," he replied but reluctantly pulled away from her lips and instead rested his forehead on her own.

She grinned sheepishly up at him, very aware of how out of breath they both were. To her surprise, he answered with his own cocky grin.

"You're not bad Shrimp," he muttered quietly.

"You're not bad yourself," she laughed before poking him gently in the stomach, "now let me go before we get caught."

He had caged her in with his arms, so she had no means of escape. Reluctantly, he took a step backwards, allowing her to hop down from the desk and correct her jumper so it wasn't shoved halfway up her stomach anymore.

"Stop looking at me like that," she said mildly, raising her eyebrows up at him.

"Like what?"

"Like you want to eat me."

"Maybe I do," he grinned at her, flashing his teeth in a way that made that familiar shiver run through her spine once again. It was remarkable the effect he had on her.

The shrill bell rung loudly once again, signalling the end of break time and within seconds Levy heard the thunderous sound of footsteps running indoors and back to their respective classrooms.

"Guess you were right to stop," he commented with a snigger as the door was pushed open and the class filed in. She simply rolled her eyes at him,

"Class, Mr Redfox is leaving now. So say thank you and goodbye!"

"Nooooo," some of them howled, they had hoped he would stay for longer.

Gajeel frowned at their response, surprised they had enjoyed their time with him. He had always worked under the impression that children wouldn't like his short tempered self.

"Goodbye Mr Redfox," they sighed, "come back soon!"

"Yeah, yeah. Maybe," he said nonchalantly, waving them off, "catch ya later Shrimp," he called as he left the classroom, pulling the door closed behind him.

Her class began giggling at the nickname he had given their teacher, much to Levy's annoyance.

"Alright, alright," she huffed, trying to regain some control over her rowdy class, "calm down if you want to make Mrs Mashima's Get Well Soon cards!"

It didn't take long for the class to forget about Gajeel interesting visit, and soon they were immersed in paint, glitter and glue.

As Levy walked around her diligently working students, she bent down to get a closer look at Kaitlin's work.

"That's really good Kaitlin," she commended, "Mrs Mashima will love it!"

"Thank you Miss," Kaitlin smiled and turned to her teacher. Her smile quickly turned into a frown, "Miss McGarden?"

"Hmm?"

"What's that red mark on your neck?"

.

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><p><strong>AN: **No your eyes aren't deceiving you, I updated quickly again! It's the beginning of the Easter Holidays and I have a week of freedom before I work full time for two weeks, so I thought I'd try and get this story going a bit more before I'm too pooped by work to write everyday.

I loooooooooove Gajeel interacting with children. My secret head canon is that he thinks he's crap with them, but he's actually surprisingly good. Children enjoy his brash way of doing things! I also secretly think Gajeel has a major soft side to him that he doesn't like to show in public. Like how he reacted when he finally got Lily? So I think that could transfer to children as well.

And they finally smooched! WOOHOO!

I based his content in the school on what I could remember from my own fire safety days in school (admittedly it was over a decade ago) so I may have made up my own bits and bobs ~

I've never really written any ~romantic~ scenes before so it'd be neat if you let me know how you felt that went, like description wise…too much? Too little? FILL ME IN PLS!

For the people asking; David should be returning within the next two chapters, I don't know why you're so eager to see him, he's a jerk!

Also, I don't think Hiro Mashima is married so don't think Mrs Mashima is based on his wife! I just thought it'd cool to add his name in there ^_^

But yeah this is the second longest chapter so far I think soooo review please! :)


	15. Chapter 15

**Smokin' Hot**

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?' and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."

**15; **Meet the Parents

"I feel stupid."

"You look _smart _- for once."

"Same damn thing," Gajeel growled, staring uncertainly at the unfamiliar reflection in his mirror. Gone was the scruffy, just look liked he rolled out of bed Gajeel, and in his place was a rather dapper looking young man who seemed to bear an uncanny resemblance to Gajeel.

"Why am I doing this again?" he muttered to Lily as the taller man batted some of the dust off the smart looking blazer.

"Because you want to make a good impression on your girlfriends parents," Lily said exasperatedly, they had had this conversation at least five times since he had arrived to make sure Gajeel wore suitable clothing, and he was quickly growing tired of it.

"Ah," Gajeel hummed, "_that_. How did I even agree to this again?"

He truly could not remember.

In the few weeks they had been "officially seeing each other", as Lily had so helpfully put it one evening, things had progressed at a rate Gajeel was fairly happy with. Though their friends would tell them with huge cheesy grins on their faces they were _dating_, Levy had yet to utter the word and Gajeel was extremely grateful.

He could handle other people _telling _him he was dating the petite teacher. He could deal with Natsu and Gray making jokes about him rushing home to his _girlfriend_ when he left work early. He could even handle Lily attempting to talk to him about _feelings _and all that crap. All that was relatively easy to ignore. But he knew if Levy said the words it was a whole different ballpark.

That would make it real.

And Gajeel wasn't sure he was ready to make it real yet.

His experience with relationships had been resoundingly horrendous for the majority of his life. Aside from the precarious friendships he had somehow managed to develop since joining the fire house, he had very little experience in it. He wasn't even entirely sure how he'd managed to befriend the nut-jobs at the fire house, but they had managed to crawl under his skin and even he had to admit he felt a strange feeling of affection towards them all nowadays.

But Levy was different.

What he felt towards her wasn't a little affection, it was something much different. Something he hadn't felt in years.

He frowned as he continued to stare uncertainly at his reflection in the mirror.

There had only been one person in his life he'd felt this way towards before, and that person had callously left him for reasons he was still unsure of.

His frown quickly turned into a glare as he thought of his absent father, something he hadn't really done in a while.

As a child he had doted on the man. As much as he hated to admit it now, his father had been his entire world. Everything he had done was to gain his approval, and that hadn't ended very well for him.

He clenched his fist together as he recalled the evening his father had left him. He had been seven years old and he hadn't suspected anything was amiss. At 9 o'clock he had gotten up from the sofa, said goodnight to his old man and went upstairs to bed. His father had ruffled his hair in that weird show of affection he always did and had grunted a goodnight to him. There was no sign that anything was wrong.

He woke up the next day to find an empty house.

At first he hadn't been too worried about the disappearance of his father, it had happened a few times and he always returned within a few hours of Gajeel waking up.

At about 9pm that night, Gajeel realised he wasn't coming back.

A hand clasping at his shoulder stirred him out of his increasingly negative thoughts and he glanced up to find Lily staring at him worriedly.

The hand squeezed his shoulder gently, "calm down Gajeel," Lily said quietly, "she's not like him."

In an instant, he felt his pent up worries slowly ebbing away. He always found it remarkable just how easy Lily found it to read him.

"I know she's not," he grunted awkwardly, fixing the cuffs of his blazer in an attempt to avoid eye contact with Lily, "this is just…it's just new to me, that's all."

Lily nodded in understanding, he was all too aware of how stunted Gajeel was in this respect.

"And I'm sure Levy understands that," Lily said softly, "but you can't start to think of her like you think of Him. Got it?"

Gajeel nodded sullenly, and quickly tied the red tie that had been hanging loosely around his neck, "I got it. I got it."

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Caroline McGarden tapped her fingers impatiently on her worktop as she watched a honey golden chicken slowly cook in her large oven. On top of the contraption, pots and pans sat on top of the hob brimming and bubbling slowly. In the fridge a homemade strawberry gateaux sat waiting patiently to be devoured later on that evening.

The oven pinged and she dove forwards, in seconds she had donned a pair of blue oven gloves and was pulling the chicken out of the oven. She smiled as she inhaled the smell of dozens on amazing tasting spices.

"That smells great," Rianne sauntered lazily into the kitchen as Caroline set the chicken on the centre of the table.

"Don't touch!" Caroline called shrilly as she watched her youngest daughter reach out to swipe some of the honey glazing off the chicken with her finger, "be helpful and scoop the rice into bowls please!"

Rolling her eyes, Rianne moved towards the pots on top of the stove and peeked into them, "which one?"

"Both! The egg fried rice and the normal one please. Put the egg fried rice into the big blue bowl, and the other one can go in the red one."

"Yeah, yeah," Rianne muttered, wisely quiet enough for her mother not to hear. She never quite understood why her mother got so panicked whenever she was in the kitchen. She always felt secretly sorry for her mothers employees at the restaurant.

"I thought Levy asked you not to make a big deal out of this anyway?" she called as she carefully scooped spoonfuls of rice into the designated bowls.

Caroline frowned, "I'm not making a big deal! This is nothing!"

"Uh…huh," Rianne shook her head and wisely decided to drop the subject, knowing it would only serve to stress out her mother even more, "so…what do you think he'll be like?" she asked conversationally as she carried the two bowls of rice to the table, (ignoring her mothers cries of _"do one at a time for Pete's sake!")_

"Hmm? Who?"

"_Gajeel_," Rianne huffed, his name rolling off her tongue with ease, "who else would I be talking about?"

"Oh! Oh, him," Caroline frowned, "I'm not sure what to expect. Levy does seem to like him a lot though."

Rianne nodded in agreement remembering the excited phone call she had received from her elder sister telling her she was bringing Gajeel round to meet the family.

"Rianne?" Caroline asked slowly, "you don't think it's too soon after David for her to be dating again do you?"

Rianne raised an eyebrow as she stared a her mother questioningly, "it's been nearly two months since they broke up, I think she's allowed to look at other men again."

"I know! I know," Caroline sighed, "it's just…well…David was so perfect for her and he made her so happy-"

"And he also turned out to be cheating scum," Rianne scowled harshly.

Caroline waved an airy hand, "_yes _I know, but you know what I mean. It's not like Levy to move this fast with men, she didn't introduce us to David for months! I just don't want her to get hurt so soon."

Rianne shrugged, "Levy's an adult, she can do what she wants, and besides, this Gajeel guy seems really cool from what she's told me. We just have to trust she's making the right decision."

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Levy was seriously considering whether she was making the right decision. The choice to invite Gajeel to meet her family had come as a surprise even to her.

They had been sitting by the bar alone one night, discussing her mothers restaurant and she had for some reason blurted out the invitation. At that moment, Kinana had passed by a heard and in seconds was cat calling over to Lucy to tell her the good news. Before Levy even had the chance to recompose herself, half the bar were coming over to them to find out the newest gossip.

In a way, Levy kind of wondered if Gajeel felt pressured to agreeing to meet them.

It wasn't as if Levy never wanted Gajeel to meet her family, she just had never imagined it would happen so soon into their little relationship.

She froze as the word _relationship_, jumped into her mind. In the few weeks since their impromptu kiss at her school the fact that they were now officially dating was a fairly common one in the bar. Every day she had either Lucy or Mira or Cana or sometimes even Erza bounding up to her asking how things were going with Gajeel. And she really didn't mind answering their questions.

Gajeel made her extremely happy. But there was something she was distinctly aware of that the others had yet to pick up on yet.

Neither herself, nor Gajeel had yet to say the words boyfriend, girlfriend or _dating _to each other yet. And the thought made her feel a bit uneasy. She knew Gajeel wasn't the best at relationships, but she couldn't help but wonder that his reluctance to give them an official label meant he wasn't serious about the whole thing. And she knew she wouldn't be able to cope with another David-esque like situation so soon after the first.

She didn't need an declaration of love, or anything like that, she just wanted some sort of confirmation she wasn't looking into this much more deeper than he. She _knew _Gajeel liked her and enjoyed spending time with her, but the little monster of doubt wouldn't stop gnawing away in the recesses of her mind.

Also, if the meeting with Jet and Droy was anything to go by, she was extremely worried of how her family would take to Gajeel. Though both men had left her dozens of grovelling answer phone messages apologising for their childish behaviour, (she had forgiven them both - of course), she knew they still weren't as fond of Gajeel as she would have liked them to be.

She didn't need them to become his best friend over night, but she would have felt a lot more reassured about Gajeel meeting her family if her two closest friends liked him first.

A barrage of knocks on her door made her jump slightly and lose her train of thought.

"Coming!" she called before grabbing her keys off her dresser, switching her bedroom light off and dashing to her front door. She glanced at the clock as she went, surprised too see that Gajeel was actually on time to meet her. She had assumed he would rock up whenever he felt.

"I can't believe you're on ti- Oh!" she gasped as she wrenched the door open to find Erza and Juvia grinning down on her, "hi guys. I was expecting Gajeel."

"Gajeel is here," Juvia informed her, "but he got…distracted…by Natsu, so Juvia and Erza thought we'd come and get you!"

Levy giggled and, correctly, imagined Gajeel getting into an argument with Natsu as soon as he stepped over the threshold into the bar.

"You look wonderful Levy," Erza said, nodding her head in approval. Juvia hummed in agreement, causing Levy to blush.

For the occasion she had donned a pair of shiny black leggings and a light purple strapless vest that clung to her petite figure rather nicely. On her feet she wore ankle high black boots and had opted on wearing her hair down for the occasion. It had grown out quite a bit and she found she liked it.

"Thanks guys," she smiled brightly, "I better get going though, my mother gets very anxious about things like this. Lord knows how she copes running a restaurant."

Levy locked her door and the three women bounded down the stairs quickly, all of them deciding they had left Gajeel and Natsu alone for far too long.

Levy groaned as she entered the bar and saw Gajeel had Natsu in a headlock and the aforementioned pink haired man was doing his best to reach for a pitcher of alcohol to douse Gajeel in.

"Don't you dare Natsu Dragneel!" Levy screeched, her heartbeat increasing as his fingers wrapped themselves around the handle of the pitcher, "Gajeel, you look very handsome tonight and if Natsu drenches you in that pitcher I promise you I'm going to hold you personally responsible."

Natsu sniggered as Gajeel glared and reluctantly let him go.

"Just wait Flamebrain," he growled as Natsu dusted himself off.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll wait till you're not whipped anymore," he laughed before wisely darting away from Gajeel's arm length.

Gajeel barely had time to spit out a well chosen curse word at Natsu before Levy was standing in front of him, a semi amused look on her face.

"Do you always have to cause trouble?" she asked.

"Oi, it was his fault. Stupid jerk commented on my suit."

"You look very nice in a suit," Levy commented, nodding in appreciation. He had done his hair in the style that made her feel funny in her stomach. Gone were the messy knots it usually sat in, and it had been combed out and wet so it glistened ever so slightly as if fanned down his back.

Gajeel smirked, baring his unusually sharp canines, "glad to know my efforts haven't gone unappreciated."

She blushed and quickly turned away from him.

That smirk of his was so damn emotive, she felt she could read his mind with one quirk of his lips.

_You look pretty damn good too, Shrimp_.

She coughed, "w-well, let's get going then, my parents will be expecting us soon."

"Have fun!" Juvia cooed, sighing dramatically as she watched them exit the bar, "Juvia hopes Levy's family like Gajeel."

Erza hummed in agreement, "Gajeel better not mess up."

The underlying threat in her statement made Juvia nod fervently, she didn't want to see what would happen to her long time friend if this didn't end well in Erza's eyes.

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Caroline hadn't known what to expect when Levy had informed her she wanted to bring home her current partner for the family to meet, but she was 100% certain she hadn't been expecting Gajeel Redfox.

With his many piercings, bulging muscles, long unruly hair, and cocky smirk, he just screamed _trouble_. Despite the fact he had obviously gone through a lot of effort to look smart and sophisticated, she could tell he just wasn't used to wearing suits or smart clothing at all for that matter. She could picture him in a pair of worn tracksuit bottoms and a t-shirt, the smart crisp white shirt and black blazer seemed incredibly out of place on him.

He was nothing like the polite, quaint and handsome David. That wasn't to say Gajeel wasn't handsome, no, Caroline could admit the burly man had _some _sort of appeal to him. But she had never imagined he had the sort of appeal that would appeal to her daughter. She watched in awed silence as Levy introduced Gajeel to her husband and Rianne. Greg gaped unabashedly as he shook the large man's hand and barely managed to mutter out a shocked,

"H-how do you do?"

To her surprise, Rianne seemed completely unfazed by Gajeel's presence and she quite eagerly stuck out her hand and firmly shook Gajeel's.

"Nice to meet you Gajeel," she said with a wry smirk on face that was directed at Levy.

"Nice to meet ya kid," Gajeel replied, shaking her hand with a bemused smirk on his own face.

His voice was very deep, Caroline thought, as she absentmindedly listened to him greet her family. Too deep, she felt she could almost feel the vibrations it caused strumming through her body and replacing her heart beat.

"And this is my mother," Levy said brightly, snapping Caroline out her thoughts, "Caroline."

Gajeel rounded on her and for the first time that evening she found herself on the receiving end of his mischievous smirk. She felt rather like a tiny gazelle being cornered by a ravenous lion and it took every amount of self control she possessed not to recoil backwards.

"Nice to meet ya," Gajeel said, thrusting his open palm into her face, "you don't look anything like short stuff over here."

Levy rolled her eyes, Rianne giggled, Greg frowned a little bit - unsure of whether the insult was a light hearted one or not.

Caroline inhaled deeply and stretched out her hand to meet Gajeel's, "it's a pleasure to meet you too Gajeel," his fingers squeezed down gently over her own and she found herself shocked at how gentle his handshake was. She had expected to have her arm nearly torn off if the size of his muscles were anything to go by.

"A-ah, shall we eat?" she stammered nervously. Without waiting on their answer, she swivelled around on her heels and vanished into the kitchen.

As she disappeared, one thing was on her mind; _Levy had clearly gone insane._

Greg quickly followed his wife, leaving Rianne, Levy and Gajeel standing awkwardly in the hallway. Once her parents were out of earshot, Rianne exhaled deeply, "well that went well!"

Gajeel raised an eyebrow at Levy's younger sister. Despite what most people believed, he was actually fairly perceptive, he just didn't like voicing his opinions most of the time.

"Your mother's terrified of me," he said bluntly.

"And why has that forced a wide grin on your face?" Levy asked, glaring at him with mock annoyance.

He shrugged and draped a casual arm over Levy's shoulder, "I told ya I like a challenge didn't I?"

"Please behave, Gajeel," Levy said sternly as they too followed her parents and made their way to the kitchen.

"I'm always on my best behaviour," he sniggered.

Rianne followed them with a small smile on her face.

She liked to imagine she was fairly good judge of character and she already found herself liking Gajeel a lot. He was a stark contrast to David and now, as she looked back on their meeting, she realised that David had been putting on a "perfect man" act when he was introduced to her family. Gajeel on the other hand was incredibly open. What you saw was clearly what you got with him.

In her mind, she gave him a point.

"Oh, oh my," Levy gasped as she entered the kitchen and caught sight of the packed table, "you didn't have to make this much effort, mum," she said, staring hungrily at the brimming bowls and plates.

Caroline shot her a quizzical look, "why does everyone keep saying that? This was nothing…really."

Gajeel whistled lowly as he too took in the sight before him, "if this is nothing, I wanna see what something is."

They all took seats around the table as Caroline darted around the kitchen making finishing touches to the meal in front of them.

"Levy didn't tell me what you're favourite meal is Gajeel, so I apologise if this isn't to your tastes," she said as she finally settled herself into her seat. If she was honest with herself, she imagined Gajeel was the type of man who lived off take-away meals, much like her daughters.

Gajeel on the other hand was eagerly staring at the food before him. Sweet, savoury smells were assaulting his nose and he found his fingers tapping impatiently on the table before him, itching to reach out and grab a piece of the succulent looking chicken that was placed near him.

"You made this all alone?" he asked in awe, looking up to stare at Levy's mother. She nodded, her lips twitching up in pride a little.

"Wow," he whistled before rounding on Levy, an incredulous look on his face, "if your mother can do this how the hell are you burning lasagne?"

"_Thank you_," Caroline breathed, the situation of Levy burning lasagne to the point she burned her apartment block was still in the forefront of her mind.

"Hey!" Levy snapped, ignoring the way Rianne and her father were loudly laughing at her expense. It was bad enough her mother going on about her lack of cooking skills, she didn't need it from Gajeel, "I can cook!"

Gajeel raised an eyebrow, "really?"

"Yes."

"What?" Rianne spluttered, finding the situation all too hilarious, "oven pizza?"

"That counts as cooking!" Levy cried shrilly.

Gajeel shook his head in disbelief, and made a mental note to somehow teach his Shrimp the basics in the kitchen.

As they laughed at Levy's expense, they began spooning the food onto their plates and soon fell into a comfortable silence as they ate the first few mouthfuls of the food Caroline had prepared for them.

Gajeel had picked quite a big plate of food and eagerly stuffed some of the perfectly cooked honey glazed roast chicken, some plain white rice, a few dumplings, a spoonful or two of macaroni and some salad on his plate.

"So you're taking it slow tonight," Rianne chuckled as she eyed the mountain of food on Gajeel's plate.

Gajeel shot her a grin, "very slow."

"Do you cook Gajeel," Greg asked suddenly, sipping on the slim glass of wine in front of him, he remembered how shocked Gajeel had appeared to be at Levy's utter lack of cooking skills and wondered if his own fared any better.

Almost immediately, Levy's eyes lit up, "he is amazing, Daddy!"

"_Really?!_" Greg, Caroline and Rianne all spluttered, all of them regarding Gajeel with confusion.

Gajeel scratched the back of his head nervously as three pairs of eyes suddenly zoomed in on him, "uh…yeah. I dabble in the kitchen."

Next to him, Levy pouted and rolled her eyes, "he's being modest. He's really very good. I was telling him just last week you and him should swap recipes sometime!" she nodded at her mother, her eyes still bright as she bragged proudly about Gajeel's prowess in the kitchen, "hey!" she prodded Gajeel in the ribcage lightly, "what was the meal you made for us last week?"

Caroline's eyes widened in surprise to hear the gruff man had cooked for her daughter.

"You cook for her often?"

Levy was the only person at the table who noticed the slight blush that was gradually appearing on his cheeks and she couldn't help but find it oddly endearing.

"Uh…yeah I've cooked for her a few times now," he admitted, "someone's gotta make sure she eats right, huh?"

"Here, here!" Greg chuckled, lifting his glass in the air. Levy scowled good naturedly at her father who in return winked back at her.

"I have to admit," Caroline said slowly, looking very impressed, "that's a first. I wouldn't ever guess you'd enjoy cooking."

"Yeah," Rianne said, through a mouthful of potatoes, "you look like the 'lemme order pizza every night of the week' kind of guy."

"Nah that's your sister," he muttered.

"_Hey!_"

"The nights I'm home, I like cooking," he admitted as he took a bite out of one of his dumplings, "it's a nice way to unwind. I only really order out if I'm drained."

"What do you do?" Greg asked curiously.

Gajeel turned to frown at Levy who for some reason was beaming up at him, "you didn't tell them?"

"It slipped my mind," she chirped happily, the wide smile still plastered on her face. It took a lot of effort and self control for him to force his gaze away from her megawatt smile, but he somehow managed it and turned back to face her family once again.

"I'm a fire fighter."

"That. Is. Awesome," Rianne said loudly, looking at Gajeel with newfound appreciation.

Levy noted, with pride, that her mother and father were also staring at Gajeel with small smiles on their faces and she knew he had won them over. She couldn't help the smile from spreading even further across her face as the realisation that her parents liked Gajeel set in.

"My, you're full of surprises aren't you Gajeel," Caroline said with a small smile, wondering if she had misjudged him before. Not only was the revelation that he cooked - and very well if Levy's gushes were any indication of his cooking skills - in stark contrast to his demeanour, she never in a million years would have pegged him as a fire fighter.

Maybe a mechanic. But never as someone who selflessly put his own life on the line to save others on a regular basis.

The admission said more about him than she thought he was aware of.

"Wait a moment," Greg said suddenly, his eyes twinkling with understanding, "is that how you two met?"

Next to him, Gajeel could practically feel the warmth of Levy's blush as she groaned and sunk lower into her seat.

Caroline's eyes widened as she caught onto what her husband was saying, and Rianne didn't even bother to hide her giggles.

"Yeah," Gajeel smirked, always happy to tease Levy wherever possible, "I rescued Shrimp from her building."

"Stop calling me that," Levy mumbled, now a knee-jerk reaction more than out of annoyance from the nickname anymore, "and yes…Gajeel rescued me."

"That is actually so cute," Rianne cooed.

"Ha!" Gajeel barked, "there wasn't anything cute about it. Short stuff hated my guts when we first met."

"Well you weren't the most sympathetic person in the world," Levy huffed, "did you know he _poked _me to see if I was alright?"

Caroline had to cover her mouth to hide her laughter as she envisioned a grief stricken Levy being poked by a completely unsympathetic Gajeel.

"You weren't saying anything!" he grunted in his defence, feeling a little sheepish now he remembered how badly he had dealt with the situation.

"Well, despite your severely lacking people skills," Greg said with a smile, "I have to thank you for risking your own life to save our daughter. We owe you a lot for that."

Gajeel waved an airy hand and scoffed, "I'd do it anytime."

At that admission Levy felt her heart skip at beat. To everyone else seated around the table, they assumed he was simply talking broadly about his job and saving anyone. But she didn't miss the way he swiftly glanced down at him and met her gaze.

_I'd do it anytime_.

He hadn't meant it generally.

He'd meant it specifically for her.

"Levy?" Caroline asked suddenly, staring at her daughter worriedly, "are you ok? You're all red all of a sudden. Are you ill? Are you hot? Ar-"

"I'm fine!" she said with a weak smile, "I'm really, really, fine," she glanced up at Gajeel and gave him a small smile of her own to let him know that she understood.

He wasn't a man of many words, he had difficulty expressing his feelings, but make no mistake; he was in this for the long run.

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Levy was extremely pleased at the way the evening was progressing. Gajeel was conversing with her family so fluidly, it was like he'd known them for months and this wasn't the first time they'd met. She knew he had been uncomfortable with meeting her family at first, but she was grateful he had made an effort and it seemed to be paying off.

She could practically see the initial apprehension her mother felt to Gajeel peeling away as she warmed to him. She already knew Rianne liked him. The pair had struck up an easy banter which each other and Levy was amused to see that Gajeel had already given her a nickname.

"_Shut up, String-bean_."

"…_did…did you just call me String-bean?"_

"_Yes."_

By Gajeel standards, that meant he definitely liked her.

Her father also liked Gajeel. Greg seemed to be utterly fascinated about Gajeel's choice of career and spent at least fifteen minutes grilling him about his job.

By the end of dessert, Gajeel had taken off his black blazer, hoisted up the sleeves of his shirt so it met his elbows and had loosened his tie, showing Levy just how relaxed he had become.

Even she had relaxed somewhat, and had shifted in her seat so she was angled into his chest a little.

Rianne watched their interactions with interest. It was apparent to her just how much her sister liked Gajeel. They seemed to gravitate towards each other, in a way Rianne had only seen her parents and grandparents do before. It wasn't an overly sickening display of public affection that she saw only too often by the loved up couples at her school, it was subtle, just enough for the world to know they were together.

Her content smile faltered a little as she remembered that once upon a time, David had had that sort of relationship with her sister.

"Shall we move into the living room," Greg suggested suddenly, "we can relax a bit more out there."

"What about the dishes?" Levy asked.

"We can deal with that later, I want to ask Gajeel about some of his recipes in more detail!" Caroline chirped, looking extremely excited. Gajeel looked wary.

Laughing, Levy stood up from the table and the rest followed.

Sensing this would probably be her only chance to talk to Gajeel with Levy overhearing, Rianne walked closely next to him. She waited till everyone was in the living room apart from herself and Gajeel and took the opportunity.

"Listen," she murmured suddenly, sticking her arm out to hit the wall so Gajeel wouldn't be able to get passed her and into the living room.

"Uh?" he grunted, and looked downwards to stare at her in confusion.

"I'm guessing you know about David?"

His fist clenched involuntarily as he thought about the pathetic excuse for a man that had come before him, but Rianne didn't notice.

"Yeah, she's mentioned him."

"Don't you dare turn out like him. Because I promise you, if I have to see my sister crying over a jerk ever again, it won't end very well for you."

Gajeel fought the urge to snort in laughter at Rianne's threat. The skinny girl inflicting any sort of damage on him was laughable, but he understood the sentiment behind her words.

"I'm serious Gajeel," she said sternly, cutting her eyes at him. She removed her arm from the wall and crossed them both over her chest and then pulled herself up a little so she was standing at full height, "she really likes you. A lot. And if you do anything to ruin that, I won't be responsible for my actions."

He didn't answer straight away. He had never been a man of many words and with regards to his relationship with Levy, he knew even less words to voice his feelings.

It was a rather private matter he thought, but he understood Rianne's desire to know that he wasn't there just to mess about with her sister. The thought that Levy had someone so close to her that cared so much about her was a rather endearing thought and he immediately found himself liking Rianne a whole lot more.

"Listen kid," he sighed eventually. Rianne visibly bristled at his use of the word "kid" but she decided to let it slide.

"I'm listening."

"I don't have any intention to mess your sister around. She's special that one and…" he swallowed thickly, suddenly feeling incredibly nervous. His left hand reflexively moved to the back of his neck and he scratched at it unsurely, "and I'd like to stick around."

Rianne's mouth split into a bright grin that reminded him so much of Levy he was astounded for a second or two.

"That's all I needed to hear big guy," she laughed as she lightly whacked him on the chest. She could see immediately that talking about things like relationships wasn't something Gajeel was good at but she could very easily see just how much he cared for her sister.

As if she could sense they were discussing her, Levy's head suddenly poked through the living room.

"What're you two doing out here?" she asked suspiciously, her eyebrow cocking up as she surveyed them.

Rianne turned her bright smile to her sister, "I was just asking Gajeel to hook me up with a discount from the place that does his piercings. I really want my eyebrow done!"

Gajeel threw his head back and roared with laughter as Caroline screeched from the living room;

"_don't you dare young lady!"_

He liked this family. A lot.

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**A/N: **Slightly delayed update, sorry I was doing overtime at work so I was pretty much pooped whenever I came home! But yeah, I did a time jump thing because I thought it was a bit redundant to have me just write about day to day stuff yup. Ummm, so how do you think Gajeel fared with Levy's family? I think he did a pretty good job, despite the initial opinion ^_^

Fun fact: I am the 'lemme order pizza every night of the week kinda guy' (even though I am a lady)

Please review guys ^_^ xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

_And stayed tuned for… : __**CHAPTER 16: THE RETURN OF DAVID ~ **_


	16. Chapter 16

**Smokin' Hot**

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?', and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."

**16; **A _Real _Date

He glared at the pretty red head who clung to his arm with no apparent intention of letting go. He winced as a false, and ridiculously high pitched laugh floated into his ears. He visibly blanched as the smell of cheap perfume assaulted his nose.

"What's wrong _hunny_?" the red head frowned and looked upwards at her boyfriend, wondering why he looked like he was about to scream.

"Nothing. Nothing," David muttered.

The red head wasn't much of a thinker and so she simply shrugged and assumed her _darling _David wouldn't lie to her. Within seconds she was back staring fixatedly at his television, laughing loudly and so damn annoyingly, and a incredibly unfunny sitcom.

David sighed and allowed his head to roll backwards to rest on the head rest of his sofa.

He was beginning to wonder if he had made a mistake.

His red headed girlfriend cackled shrilly and he winced.

Yes, he had definitely made a mistake.

Whilst his new girlfriend had appealed to his more primitive senses at first - reflexively he glanced downwards and nodded appreciatively at her figure eight shaved curves, plump lips and lovely long legs he found oh so attractive - he had come to realise that she wasn't much for conversation.

She was a nice girl and everything, but he couldn't sit with her and discuss a book. He couldn't tell her about his day and expect her to actually take some interest in it. They couldn't go to fancy restaurants and try all kinds of foreign foods because she was _scared _of different tastes. And anyway, whenever they went out to each she always chose a burger. She wasn't adventurous in the slightest.

Levy was though.

He blinked as Levy's beaming face danced in front of him. He had genuinely enjoyed his time with Levy and lately he hadn't been able to squash the feeling of longing whenever she passed through his mind.

He wanted her back.

.

.

.

Levy sat casually in a booth downstairs in the bar, a glass of orange juice on one side and a pile of math papers in front of her.

Quiet evenings in the bar were few and far between, but when the odd occasion did arise, she liked to take full advantage of it. Which is why she found herself sitting in a booth at 9pm, marking math papers her class had done earlier that afternoon.

Lucy was sat next to her, nursing a vodka and cranberry juice, but the blonde had her nose buried deep inside a novel she had borrowed from Levy and proved to be no distraction that evening.

With a small smile, she picked up her pen and began to try scribble correct answers over the papers in front of her.

She worked steadily for an hour or so, before the two women for finally interrupted.

The sound of rapidly approaching clicking heels made them drop their items and look up. Mirajane was hurrying towards them, wearing a short, leather skirt that stopped mid-thigh and an off shoulder purple jumper.

Levy's eyes widened as she dropped her gaze to peer down at Mirajane's long, _long_, creamy legs and found she was wearing a pair of extremely high black heels.

"How are you walking so fast in those?" Levy squawked as Mira approached their table and dropped her purse on it with a sigh, "I would've broken my ankle from the second I got them on!"

Mira laughed, "years of practice. They're really just like slippers once you get used to them."

Levy rose an eyebrow as she glanced at the heels again and estimated they had to be at _least _6 inches, "yeah…right."

"Where are you going all dressed up anyway?" Lucy asked curiously, nodding in appreciation at her friends outfit, "Freed?"

Mira smiled brightly and nodded, "Freed's taking me out for dinner tonight, we haven't had a real date night in so long, I'm kind of excited!"

Lucy sighed and shook her head, "I'm jealous~" she whined, "what restaurant are you going to?"

"I'm not sure yet," she admitted, sliding into the empty seat next to Lucy.

"Knowing Freed, it'll be somewhere romantic," Lucy sighed, "you're so lucky Mira. You scooped up probably the only man in this town who actually knows how to be a gentleman."

"I'm sure that's not true! Men act very different when they're single to how they are in a relationship, you'd be surprised!" Mira protested with a laugh, she turned to Levy, "I bet Gajeel's good in a relationship, right Levy?"

It was only then the two noticed that Levy had gone surprisingly quiet.

"Levy?" Lucy kicked her lightly under the table.

"Hmm? Did you say something?"

Mira cocked her head to the side, "are you ok Levy?"

She nodded, "mhm, just fine."

Noticing the abrupt way she spoke told both women that Levy was not _just fine_.

"Levy," Lucy said sternly, "what's wrong? You can tell us, we're your friends you know?"

Levy exhaled deeply and looked up at her two friends with worried eyes, "it's just…well…Mira was saying about going on a date with Freed and…and…" she trailed off and bit her lip.

"And?"

"and…well, it got me wondering, why haven't me and Gajeel gone on a date?"

Lucy blinked.

Mira blinked.

"Huh?"

"You haven't gone on a date?"

"_At all_?"

Levy waved her hands wildly in front of her face, "well we did once, but we didn't call it a date even though I ended up calling it a date in the end, but that was before we were officially going out! Nowadays, he just comes to the bar and we talk, sometimes we go upstairs sometimes we don't, or sometimes I'll go to his, but that's about it. "

Lucy rose an eyebrow, "so in the three months you've been dating…you haven't actually gone out anywhere for a date?"

"I took him to meet my parents a couple weeks ago and we had dinner," she said meekly, "does that count?"

Mira firmly shook her head.

Lucy slammed her palm into her forehead, "sweet Jesus, he's just as bad as Natsu."

Levy groaned, "Lucy was right, Mira," she mumbled, "you _are _lucky."

.

.

.

Lucy hummed peacefully to herself as she slowly sifted through the letters and flyers that someone had so helpfully placed on her desk earlier that morning. She was only mildly hung over that morning, something she thought was something to be celebrated, considering how much she had drunk the previous night.

It had been Laxus' birthday and everyone had been out in full force to help him enjoy his evening. She smiled wryly as the thought back on how packed the bar had been. Even people who didn't usually come to the bar after work, like Bisca or Alzack, turned up, their small daughter in tow, to share a few drinks with the surly man.

The members of Magnolia Fire Department were like a family now. An extremely, _extremely_, dysfunctional one, but a family all the same. As much as Laxus tried to pretend they all annoyed him, she knew he appreciated the effort that was made for his birthday.

"Oh, you're here already!"

Lucy looked up from the stack of mail in front of her to see a head of red hair poking through her door.

"Morning, Erza!" she said with a small smile, "am I too early?"

Erza smirked and shook her head, "no, no, I just imagined with the amount of alcohol you consumed last night, that you would be late today. Or slumped over your table hung over."

"That was _one _time!" Lucy huffed, remembering the painfully embarrassing experience that nobody seemed willing to let go, "how come alcohol doesn't affect you Erza?" she moaned, marvelling at how Erza always seemed to be in top form, no matter what went on the night before.

"Who say's it doesn't? I may just be better at hiding it," Erza winked before waving to Lucy and pulling her head back out of the open door.

Shaking her head at Erza's comment, Lucy returned back to filing through the mail. She shoved a rather thick handful into a pull out drawer named, _BILLS_, and quickly wrote a post it note reminding herself to forward the costs to Head Office later on. She stuck another slimmer handful into a drawer named, _LETTERS OF THANKS, _and scrawled herself a note to remind herself to give the letters to the respective fire fighters later on.

That only left her with a bunch of flyers. She flicked through them only half interested as she figured out which ones would make the cut to go on the notification board in the kitchen. Her eyebrows raised as she came across a light red flyer with an envelope stapled to it. In seconds she tore the envelope away from the flyer and cut it open. Her brows furrowed as she read the details and quickly turned into a large smile.

Smiling brightly, she grabbed the flyer with the letter and hopped up from her seat.

"_Guys~_" she sung loudly as she skipped through the corridors of the firehouse, "meeting in the kitchen please. Now!"

A few people - Gajeel mostly - groaned at her request, but soon enough she heard the sounds of heavy footsteps following her into the kitchen.

Natsu stalked in and flung himself into a seat next to Gray who was already seated slumped at the table, a bag of ice clinging to his forehead. Juvia sat on top of the counter sipping a glass of water. Following her, Mira walked in, then Evergreen who had replaced her usual glasses with sunglasses and Lucy couldn't help but snigger - Evergreen was not talented at dealing with hangovers. A worse for wear Macao and Wakaba slouched in soon after looking very put out, Erza followed them and Lucy sensed the fiery red head had had to force them into the kitchen. Finally, Gajeel turned up and leant against the doorframe.

"What?" he growled, wincing slightly, the effects of his hangover coming to light.

Smiling brightly Lucy began, "is this everyone for now?"

Erza nodded in confirmation.

"Excellent! So, I know we're all pretty hung over right, so I hope this doesn't just over your heads but; we have been nominated for a few awards!" she held the flyer up so everyone could see and then read out some of the information on the letter; "the 17th Annual 'Firefighter of the Year' Awards will be held in Fiore this year, to honour fire fighters in the community for their heroic acts of bravery. We are extremely pleased to announce that members of the Magnolia Fire House has been nominated for several awards. As such, you have been invited to attend the event on the 29th May. We look forward to seeing you."

She finished talking and smiled around at her colleagues. For a few seconds there was silence, then the information appeared to digest in their minds.

"Hell _yeah_!" Natsu whooped, ignoring Gray's groan, "about time someone realised how awesome we are."

Everyone laughed and soon the kitchen was full of everyone whooping and congratulating each other on their feat.

"Now," Lucy said loudly over the noise, "obviously not everyone is here today, so please just make sure when everyone else comes in for their shifts you let them know guys. This is a really big achievement, I'm proud of you all!"

"Indeed," Erza said suddenly, "this is a proud day for the Magnolia Fire Department, well done."

Gajeel couldn't help but smirk slightly as he watched his friends celebrate over their nomination. He had to admit it felt nice to be nominated for the award. He wasn't in the field solely because he wanted recognition, but he had to agree with Natsu's words, it _was _about time someone realised how awesome they were.

He yawned and turned to leave the kitchen, he had found a lovely nap spot in the garage and he wanted to return to it before Erza realised he wasn't working and made up some jobs for him to do. As he took one step out of the kitchen, his dreams of having a nice quiet, nap-filled morning were shattered.

"_Ga-jeel!" _Lucy sung before skipping cheerily to him.

He turned and glared at her, "why the hell aren't you hung over Bunny?"

She rolled her eyes, "Gajeel, that was one Halloween costume two years ago, could you please drop the nickname?"

"Would you prefer Kitty?" he asked with a smirk, referring to her most recent Halloween costume.

Face reddening, she huffed and prodded him firmly in the chest, "can I talk with you please? Privately," she added, knowing he was about to ask what the hell they were already doing.

He stared at her suspiciously for a few seconds before reluctantly nodding.

The pair made their way back to Lucy's office and she shut the door behind her to make sure nobody - Mira - would eavesdrop.

"What's up Bunny?"

Ignoring the nickname she sat down on her chair and smiled innocently up at him, "how are you?"

"…"

"Alright, so no small talk," she muttered, "I wanted to talk to you about Levy?"

"What about her?" he asked, a bit more suspiciously now, "is she ok?"

Lucy nodded and waved an airy hand, "yes, yes, she's fine. For _now_, but…well, I was at the bar with her earlier this week and we got to talking, as you do-"

"Just spit it out before I walk out."

Lucy sighed, Gajeel was always so brusque, "you don't go on dates," she said simply, "and Mira was mentioning her date with Freed and I think Levy got a bit…jealous," she said, not able to find a better word to put it.

Gajeel frowned, "we go on dates," he said slowly.

Lucy shook her head, "_no!" _she said firmly, "you meet up at the bar and spend the evening together. Most nights you end up getting distracted by Natsu or Laxus anyway, so you don't even see her. You two need to go out - somewhere other than either of your apartments," she said quickly, noticing he was about to interrupt, "dates keep the relationship fresh! Otherwise it'll become boring fast."

Gajeel winced, this all sounded like an awful lot of effort.

Sensing that she wasn't winning him over, Lucy changed tactics, "I'm not saying you have to go out somewhere every week, but three months into dating someone and you haven't taken her _anywhere_. That's pretty poor, bud. Even Natsu got his act together after a month and a half."

Gajeel blanched, hearing _Natsu _had managed to do something better than him always got on his nerves.

"We wen-"

"And don't you dare say you went to her parents house for dinner because that does _not _count."

Gajeel promptly closed his mouth.

Lucy shook her head, "what is wrong with you guys," she mumbled mainly to herself.

"So you want me to take her on a date?"

"No! No! No! _I _don't want you to do anything," she said, looking horrified by the suggestion, "if you don't want to go on a date with your girlfriend, then you should be questioning why you're even together!"

Gajeel slumped back into his chair and closed his eyes.

This was all too much.

Lucy was asking him to plan something in advance and he was definitely more of a "go with the flow" kind of guy.

She was also asking him to do something _romantic_, and he had to admit he wasn't all that good at that either. He also got the feeling Levy wasn't that much of a romantic either, she had always seemed fairly content with just sitting by his side reading a book or marking her kids school work whilst he napped or ate something.

"It's not that she doesn't like doing what you've been doing," Lucy said suddenly, a knowing look on her face, "in fact, knowing Levy, I think she loves the routine you've got going on, but you know. Every now and then a girl likes to be treated like she's something special. She likes to get dolled up and go out with the man she loves on her arm. It's a girl thing, you wouldn't understand," she said dismissively, "but she'd like it a lot. Trust me."

He leant back in his chair and frowned, "I guess…I guess I see what you mean."

Lucy smiled brightly, "excellent, now we're on the same page," she tilted her head downwards slightly and smiled in a manner that was far too creepy and suspicious for him to be comfortable.

"What?" he asked with a frown.

"I have the perfect date for you two!"

Gajeel shook his head and sighed, wondering what he had done to deserve such meddling friends in his life.

.

.

.

Gajeel yawned widely as he flung open the door to his apartment and slouched inside. He rubbed his face wearily and pretty much crumpled onto his sofa with a low groan.

To say that he was tired would have been too much of an understatement. After Lucy's, very annoying, conversation, they had suddenly become swamped with calls. Every time they returned from putting out one fire, the bell would ring again and they would have to rush back out to the truck once again.

He sniffed gingerly and rolled his eyes as the strong scent of smoke clinging to his hair hit him. He'd done a good job of ignoring the stench whilst at work, though now he was alone in the confines of his own home, he was found it slightly more difficult to ignore the odour.

Sighing at the realisation he would definitely have to shower before he got the chance to sleep, he rolled onto his back and glared up at his ceiling.

The day had been a weird one. What with the repetitive calls to put out fires or rescue small children from trees - which annoyed him very much -, and with everyone brimming with excitement over their recent nomination, he hadn't got much Gajeel-time and he didn't do too well without Gajeel-time.

Which was why he had opted on not going to the bar that evening.

Since he had met Levy, he had begun frequenting the bar more often than he usually did. With a surprised glance up at his ceiling, he realised he'd been there almost every night in the past three months, as opposed to his usual plan of simply going two or three times a week.

He grinned as he ruefully stared up at his ceiling, Levy had changed a lot.

His grin slowly disappeared and was replaced with a worried frown as he realised that this would be the first night since they had started officially dating that he hadn't seen her.

How the hell did he deal with that one?

Did he call her and let her know he wasn't coming?

They'd never actually had any sort of arrangement that required he would definitely see her every night, he just sort of turned up without even thinking about it.

What if she got worried?

What if she got mad?

He growled loudly and crossed his arms tightly across his chest, looking like a spoilt child.

He didn't know what to do.

"Why is this so fucking difficult," he grumbled at the ceiling, glaring at it even harder after it didn't reply.

In all his life, he'd never actually cared about another person to the extent that he actually considered informing them of his whereabouts. Even with Lily, he could go for weeks without seeing the man and not think twice about it.

He sighed once more before sticking his hand into his pocket and yanking out his mobile phone.

His decision was made.

He switched on the tiny device and scrolled through it until he found her number.

"Hello?" she answered on the third ring.

"'Sup, short stuff," he grinned as he could practically _hear _her eyes roll at his greeting.

"Hello to you to, Gajeel," she said, "are you coming tonight?"

He paused before answering, surprised at how easy the question had rolled off her tongue, "…nah, I'm beat."

"Oh…that's ok," she said brightly, and Gajeel knew she meant it. He felt mildly shocked as her answer set in, it had been so easy he wasn't sure why he had been so worried about telling her.

"Did you have a busy day then?" she continued, oblivious to the look of utter confusion on her boyfriends face. In the background he could hear something rustling around and he imagined her climbing into her favourite chair, wrapping her blanket around her as she got comfortable in it to talk to him.

"Understatement," he grumbled, "five calls out today. _Five_. And one was for a brat who got stuck in a tree and was too scared to jump down."

Levy giggled, imagining correctly the look of frustration and annoyance that would had been evident on Gajeel's face once he arrived at the scene.

"I hope you weren't too harsh on him."

Gajeel snorted, "nah, Erza took care of it, I just sat in the truck. Glaring."

"So kind and caring," she said lightly.

"What about you?" he asked, "what'd you get up to today?"

As Levy relayed her day to him, getting especially excited when she spoke of the project her class was doing and how well they were doing at it, he couldn't help but relax even further into his sofa. Conversating with Levy felt so utterly and wholly _normal _to him, he couldn't figure out how he had managed to go so long without it. He didn't have to worry about offending her or anything like that. He didn't have to think too hard to think of conversation ideas because the conversation just flowed so easily between them.

Even when they simply sat in silence, he enjoyed their time together.

He didn't know if the admission made him feel happy or uncomfortable. This was all still so strange to him.

"Well?"

"Huh?"

She huffed down the phone, "you weren't listening to me at all were you?"

"I was!" he defended himself, "well I was at the beginning. I zoned out when you started talking about your brats." Gajeel chuckled as Levy sighed deeply once again - at least she could never say he wasn't honest.

"They're not brats! Honestly, Gajeel, they're little angels really. I mean sometimes they're a bit too noisy and excitable, but they have the right idea. And if you're going to ask me a question, the polite thing to do is at least listen to my answer. I sometimes wonder what I'm doing with you, you know. I'm sure you're the only man out there wh-"

"Oi, Shrimp," he cut across suddenly, not really caring that she was in the middle of a sentence. Her words had stirred something in his mind and he was forcibly reminded of his conversation with Lucy earlier that day, "are you…are you okay with us?"

She paused and he could practically hear her frown.

"Of course I am, why?"

"Your blonde friend ambushed me today and said some things," he shrugged, "I dunno, I was wondering if I was doing okay."

She giggled lightly, "what exactly did my 'blonde friend' say to make you feel so unsure of yourself?" she asked.

"I'm not unsure!" he grumbled, "so me just coming to you and chilling doesn't bother you? You don't want _more_?"

"Ah," Levy said, finally understanding what Gajeel's conversation with Lucy had been about, "I didn't think she'd tell you," she pouted, making a reminder to have a conversation about keeping things just between them.

"You never would've," he pointed out, unusually serious.

"I might have!"

He snorted, "stop lying, Shrimp. So, this no date thing really bothers you huh?"

He could almost hear her squirming uncomfortably at his question as she tried to find a way to answer his question.

"It doesn't bother me exactly it j-"

"Levy."

She stopped talking almost immediately, feeling somewhat bewildered by the use of her real name for once.

"It bothers you, right?"

She sighed, "I wouldn't put it like that. But yes, I'd like to go places with you. But if it makes you uncomfortable or anything then it's not like we need to do it a-"

"You're rambling, short stuff," he grumbled, "I doesn't make me uncomfortable, it's just not something I think of. But, your friend-"

"Lucy?"

"Yeah"

"She's your friend as well, Gajeel!"

Gajeel snorted, "that remains to be seen. Anyway, she made it pretty clear that it's something I _should _be thinking about, and I'm not having that bloody flame head be a better boyfriend than me!"

Levy giggled as Gajeel began muttering mild curses under his breath at the mere suggestion Natsu was a better boyfriend than he.

"It's not a competition," she reminded him lightly.

"Like hell it's not!"

She openly laughed at his outburst, whilst he simply grumbled even more. It was very difficult to explain to Levy the rivalry he and Natsu had developed and so he decided just not to bother.

What mattered was that he was _not _about to let Natsu beat him.

"So," Levy said after she was done laughing at her boyfriends antics, "since Natsu's beating you currently, how do you plan to change that?"

Gajeel smirked, he had the perfect plan.

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.

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**A/N: **Wheewwwww, sorry this took a tad longer to come out, exam season at uni and all of that has slightly fried my brain.

So yes, Gajeel and Levy are going to have a _real proper fancy _date ooolalala and David is back. ^_^.

I cut this chapter a little shorter than the others because I already started writing chapter 17 and when I was reading it the end bit of this chapter made more sense at the beginning of chapter 17 so I just put it there!

Soooo, we're getting to the EXCITING CONCLUSION (well I hope you find it exciting) and as such, I thought it'd be neat to unveil my newest Gajeel x Levy venture and I'm uploading the first chapter of my new fic later tonight, so go and check that out *shameless plug ends here*

I hope you liked that chapter and yeah, that's about it really! Chapter 17 should be here within the week since it's pretty much nearly finished ;)

I also wanted to say, thank you so much for all your reviews so far. I can't reply to all of them personally but ughhhh you guys are so kind and I really love hearing your feedback, it's so lovely and I want to just gush about it for ages but I will try very hard not to. Just thank you! I never imagined this fic would have such positive reviews and 500+ reviews is about 5 times more than I thought I'd ever get so you guys are brilliant.

Please keep on reviewing you lovely girls and boys xoxo


	17. Chapter 17

**Smokin' Hot**

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?', and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex".

**17; **Conflict

Levy glared at the large blue bag that sat on her armchair. The bag, as bags are wont to do, did not glare back.

She sighed, drawing her gaze away from the innocent bag and shook her head.

She'd spent the whole afternoon running around Magnolia looking for a suitable outfit to wear to the Award Ceremony next week and she was feeling quite tired. Shopping for clothes wasn't really one of her favourite activities, she was more fond of wearing out her favourite clothes until she couldn't physically wear them any longer before she rushed out to buy something that looked fairly identical.

It had taken a while, and a lot of awkwardly calling shop assistants into her changing room to ask their opinion on the outfit she had tried on but eventually she found something that even she had to admit, was fairly cute.

The shop assistant had gushed for at least ten minutes about how good she apparently looked in it, but Levy suspected she was just getting fed up of her presence in the store and was doing all she could to get rid of her quicker.

Now, in the comfort of her own home, she was quickly regretting her decision to attend the event with Gajeel.

Groaning, she dropped her head into her palms. She felt so conflicted. One half of her was ridiculously excited to attend the awards ceremony clinging onto Gajeel's arm - it was about time they had a real date after all. But the other half of her was dreading the event with every fibre of her being.

With an even louder groan, she slumped into her sofa and buried her head under her cushions.

Her relationship with Gajeel was getting to a dangerous point and she wasn't sure she could handle it.

It was getting to the same point she had been at with David, and the realisation terrified her.

Sighing, she tossed to cushion away from her face and dug around in her trouser pocket to grab her mobile phone.

She bit her lip as she scrolled through her contacts list, trying to decide who to call.

She needed advice before she went insane.

.

.

.

The two sisters sat in the small café, nursing a mug of hot chocolate each. Levy watched in amusement as Rianne thrust her hand into the sugar pot and quickly extracted several sachets.

"Don't you think you're going a bit overboard," Levy asked with a smile as Rianne tore open the sachets and dumped the contents into her mug.

"No such thing as too much sugar," she winked and began stirring her drink, "so, what is it you wanted to talk about? You know I'm a very busy girl."

Levy rose an eyebrow, "you should be thanking me for giving you an excuse to stop revising."

Rianne waved a dismissive hand in Levy's face, "details, details," she sighed, "now, spill."

Levy hesitated before answering.

She'd never been one to openly speak about her feelings with her sister before. They just didn't have that kind of relationship. She'd spoken to Jet and Droy more about her relationship with David than Rianne. But something told her, that her two male best friends wouldn't be very eager to discuss her feelings about Gajeel.

Her next best bet was someone like Lucy or perhaps maybe Kinana, but she quickly ruled them out. Though everyone at the bar and firehouse were all lovely people and she liked them all much more than she'd ever imagined she would, she just didn't feel comfortable talking about _this _with them.

And so that left Rianne…or her mother.

Levy shivered at the thought of discussing her relationship troubles with her mother and quickly ruled them out. They just didn't talk about things like that!

"Oi, hurry up," Rianne said impatiently, taking a sip of her hot chocolate.

Levy took a deep breath and looked up at her sister, "I'm really nervous. A-about tonight."

"Why?" Rianne asked, quirking up an eyebrow, "it's not like you're meeting his family or anything. It's just a date."

Levy shook her head, "ok, so it's not just tonight. It's everything. I'm nervous about everything!"

"Elaborate."

"I've never felt like this before with anyone. He's become so much to me in such a short space of time and I don't know how to deal with that," she said honestly, "with David, it was a gradual thing, we dated for nearly six months before I thought I lov-" she paused, "before I started to feel like this at all!" she changed her sentence quickly, not daring to utter the word.

Rianne didn't miss her quick slip up, "you think you love him?" she asked bluntly.

Levy squirmed in her seat, and took to staring at her hot chocolate, "I don't know," she replied quietly, "I really don't know."

"And this is what's making your nervous?"

She nodded and bit her lip, "I've only had one relationship before him, and that ended horribly. I thought I loved David, I thought he was the man I was going to marry!" she laughed bitterly and shook her head, "but look how wrong I was? What if I'm wrong again? What if I don't love Gajeel and this is all some elaborate rebound. What if, Gajeel's just like him an- _owwwww!" _

Rianne glared at her sister.

"What was that for?" Levy hissed, rubbed her shin, where Rianne had very kindly decided to kick her underneath the table.

"It was the only way I could get you to stop talking."

"You could've just said stop!"

Rianne shrugged, "my way was more effective. Anyway, are you crazy?" she asked, a look of incredulous disbelief on her face, "Gajeel is _nothing _like that jerk."

"I thought…we _all_ thought, David was an amazing guy until we broke up," Levy said glumly, "we can't see into the future, Gajeel might be the same."

Rianne shook her head firmly, "David was always a jerk, he just hid it well, but the signs were always there. Gajeel on the other hand is also a jerk,"

Levy snorted into her cup.

"But at least he doesn't hide it. He's a completely different kind of jerk."

"You aren't helping at all," Levy said.

Rianne sighed, "I know why you're saying all of this rubbish. It's perfectly understandable for you to be sceptical, but you have to give Gajeel a chance. You can't throw him under David's shadow without giving him a chance to prove he's nothing like David."

"I know! I really do know," she whimpered, "it's just so hard. It's only recently I've started even thinking about this. Since it, well, since it started getting serious."

"You don't want a serious relationship with him?!"

"No I do! There's nothing I want more right now. He…well, he makes me ridiculously happy. Even when he's teasing or poking me. Even when we're just sitting in silence, I feel so content, like there's nowhere else I'd rather be."

Rianne smirked, "sounds like love."

"And that's the problem. It sounds like love, but isn't it too soon to be love?" Levy asked earnestly.

She shrugged, "there's no time limit on love. You fall in love when you fall in love, it's as simple as that. I'm not saying what you feel for Gajeel is definitely love just yet, but it's pretty clear you feel pretty strongly towards him, huh?"

Levy smiled sheepishly, and nodded, "very strongly."

"So stop second guessing yourself, live in the moment. Yeah, you had a crappy ride with David and you're still hurting about that, I get it. But don't let that affect what you've got going on with Gajeel."

"But what if-"

"What if Gajeel turns out to be a scumbag?" Rianne asked, "then you'll have to get past that hurdle when you get to it. But for now, he's done nothing to even suggest he'll take that path in life, so you can't start punishing him and yourself for something he hasn't done! Got it?"

Levy took a deep breath and nodded, "I got it. Really," she looked up at her sister and sent her a sincere smile, "when did you get so wise? I feel like you're not my baby sister anymore."

"Just because I'm the baby doesn't mean I don't know what I'm talking about. I watch a _lot _of day time drama," she added jokingly, "so, do you have an outfit for tonight?"

"Mhm!" Levy chirped through a mouthful of hot chocolate, "I went shopping a couple days ago."

"You need help getting dressed?"

Levy grimaced in embarrassment, Rianne needing to help her get dressed for big events was a sort of running joke in their house. Rianne knew what looked good. Rianne knew what hairstyles suited her or what sort of make up to wear whereas Levy was rather helpless in that department.

"Thanks, but no thanks. Lucy already offered to help me. Um, the boys are picking us up from hers. Natsu and Gajeel, I mean."

"Cool! Make sure you take loads of pictures, I need to see if this Lucy has the right to take over my duties as your official stylist."

"I'll definitely take some pictures for you," she giggled, "thank you Ri," she added quietly, "for listening to me moan today."

Rianne shrugged, "it's no big deal, it's what I'm for. And if Gajeel _does _turn out to be a jerk, I'll…well, I was going to say I'm pummel him for you but since he's so big I'll probably break a few of my own bones instead, but rest assured I _will _do something!"

Levy threw her head back and laughed, she really was quite lucky to have such amazing people in her life.

.

.

.

"How ya doing, hun?" Lucy called from her bedroom. She sat in front of her vanity mirror, applying the finishing touches to her make up.

Levy had arrived at her home a few hours ago to begin getting ready for the awards ceremony, as they had planned. It had been quite fun, Lucy thought with a smile as she narrowly missed poking herself in her eye with the mascara tip. She hadn't done another girls make up since she'd left high school, and she hadn't realised how much she missed the activity. It was a bonding activity of such.

"I'm fine!" Levy hollered back, "I'm…I'm just…ughhh…I'm just trying to do this zip up!"

Lucy giggled, "careful, you don't want it to break!"

She glanced at the alarm clock by her bedside table, "hurry though, they'll be here soon."

"I'm coming now," Levy called and Lucy whirled around on her seat.

The lock to the bathroom door clicked and the door was pulled open slowly. Lucy grinned as Levy's slight frame stepped into view. In seconds her grin dropped from her face and was replaced with a slack jawed gaze.

Levy shifted uncomfortably upon noticing Lucy's gaze, "Luce?"

"Beautiful," Lucy whispered breathlessly as Levy stepped further out of the bathroom, nervously clutching at the waist of her dress, "you look absolutely beautiful."

"It's not too much?" she asked nervously. Lucy, whilst looking extremely attractive, was dressed much more casually than Levy. She wore a thigh length, white dress with an intricate pattern adorned on the long sleeves. The dress had a plunging back and clung very nicely to her curves. She had thrown on a pair of strappy black high heels and Levy wondered how she managed to walk in them with such ease.

"Not at all," Lucy replied earnestly, "it suits you perfectly. Spin around!"

Hesitantly, Levy obliged to Lucy's request and slowly spun. As she moved, she caught a glimpse of herself in Lucy's full length mirror, and her breath hitched in her throat.

She wondered if she was staring at a stranger.

The blood red dress she wore fell to the floor, like a glistening crimson river and exposed a healthy amount of her back. Black strings entwined with small shining jewels wrapped themselves around the dress and pulled up to tie around her neck. The jewels were dotted the body of the dress as well as the halter strap. It was such a simple dress, but the effect was an enchanting one. With every turn she glistened in the light. Lucy had done her hair simply, just pulling it up into a high bun, but she allowed several stray strands to fall down purposely to frame her face.

"Who knew you had such _curves_," Lucy wolf whistled as Levy finished her twirl, "Gajeel's a lucky jerk."

Levy smiled sheepishly, finding it quite ironic that the curvaceous Lucy was complimenting _her _almost non existent assets.

"You think he'll like it?"

Lucy threw her head back and laughed, "if he doesn't, then I'm going to have to let Cana know she was right about Gajeel's sexuality."

Levy's eyes widened, "what?"

"Well, until you came along, we've never really known Gajeel to have a relationship. Our natural train of thought was that he was gay, of course. So we made bets. Cana lost once you two became an item," Lucy replied casually, as if the bet was a perfectly normal thing to do.

Levy shook her head in dismay, wondering if she should have been surprised at Lucy's answer. She had come to learn that the men and women who worked in the fire house were a very unorthodox bunch of people indeed.

"All eyes are gonna be on you!" Lucy said firmly as she watched Levy dash across the room to fish her heels out of her bag, "though I'm not sure your mister will be happy about that," she added, sniggering.

Levy rolled her eyes and slipped her feet into the black pumps, they were only three inches high, meaning she could walk without worrying about breaking her legs, "I'm sure he won't even notice."

Looks weren't something she thought Gajeel noticed very often. She couldn't remember one time where he'd complimented her outfit, or choice of hair or anything like that. She didn't take offence to it, in fact she was fairly certain he honestly just didn't notice things like that.

"I'm going to go downstairs and wait in the living room," Lucy announced "you ready?"

"Go down without me, I just want to get all my stuff together, I'll be two minutes."

Lucy nodded and then flounced out of the room, leaving Levy shaking her head jealously. She made a mental reminder to get her friend to teach her the secret to walking in heels with such ease. Once Lucy disappeared downstairs, Levy went about dashing around her room, flinging her clothes, shoes, and make up into her carry bag so it wasn't strewn all over Lucy's room overnight.

Just as she dropped the bag in Lucy's wardrobe, she heard the doorbell ring and her heart just about stopped.

Slowly, she picked up her purse and walked to the exit, catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror just one more time.

She smiled as she glanced at her reflection.

"Levy!" Lucy hollered, "we're ready to go!"

She took a deep breath then flung the door open and walked quickly downstairs.

They were standing in the corridor by the door, waiting to leave quickly.

"Hi Natsu!" she smiled as she saw the pink haired fire fighter standing closely to Lucy. He looked smart dressed in a simple black suit, though she noticed he had neglected to do his tie as it was draped lazily around his neck.

"He-" she froze as she caught sight of Gajeel.

He was standing in the corridor, wearing a fitted white tuxedo with a red bowtie. His unruly black locks, glistened as if they were still wet and were combed backwards into a low ponytail. She froze as she stared at him deciding he wouldn't have been out of place in an advertisement for designer suits. She unconsciously took a step forwards and was suddenly hit with the tantalizing scent of the cologne he wore. Before she even knew what she was doing, she was standing directly in front of him, reaching up to straighten his slightly crooked bow tie.

"You look…extremely dashing," she whispered quietly, suddenly all too aware of their close proximity and the fact Natsu and Lucy were only a few metres away.

The urge to run her hands through his hair was becoming almost too much for her so she dropped her hands and took a small step backwards.

"Don't," he grunted, suddenly lashing his arm and grabbing her own to stop her from moving backwards.

"Don't what?" she asked curiously, looking up to meet his eyes. She gasped quietly as she caught sight of his smouldering gaze, it was a look she hadn't seen before, "G-Gajeel?"

"Oi, Salamander, go start the car up," he called, not taking his eyes off Levy. He dove into his pocket, and without looking chucked his keys at Natsu.

Had the pair not been so fixated on themselves, they would have noticed the knowing smirks on both Natsu and Lucy's faces.

"Sure," Natsu called back, grabbing Lucy's arm to drag her out of the apartment, "don't be too long."

"No promises," Gajeel muttered quietly.

"Gajeel?" Levy asked again, "are yo-"

The door to Lucy's home clicked shut and within a second Gajeel had wound his arm around her back and pulled her flush against him. Before she even had time to blink, his lips were on hers and she felt like she was melting. His lips hungrily moved against her own as his hands left a steaming trail down her exposed back.

She moaned loudly and felt her toes curl slightly as his hand stop moving a rested on the small of her back, leaving a fire like trail from where they'd already touched. She felt breathless as his mouth and tongue continued their incredibly welcomed assault on her mouth. Her legs felt weak and she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to her.

All prior thoughts of attending the ceremony were rapidly leaving her mind. He tore away from her mouth suddenly and he huffed in protest only to gasp in pleasure as he instead began nibbling on her neck.

"G-Ga_jeel_," she moaned as he bit down and then proceeded to lick the sore spot. A not unpleasant pool of heat began to form in her lower stomach as he continued to slowly lick up and down her neck. She felt him smirked against her neck as she let out a particularly loud moan of pleasure before he moved back up to her mouth.

She wasn't sure how long their kiss lasted, all she knew was that she was quite happy for it to continue for all eternity.

When he eventually pulled away, she pouted in protest and gripped the front of his shirt to keep him at a close proximity. He bumped his forehead against her own and stood there, looking into her eyes, the same hungry and lustful look in his eyes.

"I don't have a word to explain how good you look," he mumbled, cheeks flushing a little at the admission.

"So you thought you'd show me?" she filled in helpfully, for all the world looking like she didn't mind at all.

He grinned widely, baring pointed perfectly white teeth, "exactly. Now," he pulled away from her, "we should probably get going. If you keep standing there, looking at me like _that, _I can't promise you'll be wearing that dress for much longer," he said with a devilish grin.

Levy blushed and gently slapped her boyfriend in the stomach, "so…_crude_."

"Yeah, yeah, you weren't complaining a couple minutes ago."

.

.

.

"I still can't believe Natsu has motion sickness," Levy giggled loudly as she allowed Gajeel to help her out of his car.

"Yeah, he's a pussy," he snorted, sending a glance towards Natsu and Lucy. Natsu was currently slumped across the sidewalk, dramatically howling,

"_I told you to let me walk!"_

To which Lucy sighed and responded, _"it's a 30 mile drive. If I let you walk, you wouldn't have been here till tomorrow."_

"_We all have to make sacrifices Lucy!"_

Levy openly laughed as she watched Lucy titter and shake her head in annoyance as she waited for Natsu to regain his composure, "it's quite fancy, isn't it?" she said, turning back to Gajeel.

The drive to the fancy hotel where the ceremony would be taking place hadn't taken very long, and Levy was amazed that such a pretty hotel existed so close to their town.

Gajeel had parked in the winding driveway that led up to a four storey white building with a fountain directly in front of them.

They watched as other people began to arrive, pulling up in fancy cars or strolling languidly up the neatly and nicely decorated pathway.

"Yeah, it's nice I guess," Gajeel mumbled, not really looking at the building, "lets just get this thing over and done with."

"You don't want to be here?"

He shrugged, "these sort of things make me feel weird. A lot of snobby ass people sucking up to us for a night, when they've never even spoken to us before."

"Stop complaining!"

They whirled around to find Natsu and Lucy making their way to them. Natsu's face was still a bit paler than usual, but judging by the trademark grin on his face, he had gotten over the worst of his sudden bout of sickness.

"Doesn't matter if they've never spoken to us before, as long as they recognise how awesome we are, I'm good."

Lucy shook her head, "_any_way, shall we go in? I get the feeling Erza will go on a rampage if we're any later than we already are."

They made their way past the fountain and up the steps into the actual hotel themselves, where they were met by a short man with a clipboard.

"Good evening," the man drawled, "tonight's function is a guest list only event, are you on the guest list?"

"Like hell we are," Gajeel growled, "Magnolia Fire Department."

The man flicked through his list, "…you would be, Mr Dragneel, Ms Heartphillia, Ms McGarden and Mr Redfox?"

"Yes!" Lucy said brightly, stepping in front of Gajeel who looked like he wanted to slam the clipboard over the mans head, "that's us. The rest of our colleagues are already inside I assume?"

"Yes…they arrived on time."

Twitching slightly in annoyance, Lucy nodded to the man and then extended her hand towards Natsu, "let's go then. Don't want to be even more late," she scowled pointedly at the man as Natsu grinned and looped his arm through hers.

"They're not even trying to hide it now, are they," Levy whispered as they followed Natsu and Lucy into the building. Gajeel kept his hands firmly stuck into his pockets, but Levy looked her arm around his own anyway and leaned in a little to him.

Gajeel sniggered, "they weren't good at hiding it in the first place."

Levy laughed in agreement.

They stepped through the threshold into the hotel and Levy gasped in amazement. The reception area was thronging with people dressed smartly and elegantly, drifting from room to room and she couldn't help but suddenly feel very small.

People she recognised from TV, or posters on the sides of buses were casually walking past her, and if she wasn't mistaken the Mayor had just dashed into the main hall room.

"I didn't think it'd be so high end," she admitted to Gajeel as he led her into the main hall where tables had been erected for the occasion.

Gajeel shrugged, "like I said, just a lot of snobby ass people sucking up to us to boost their reputation for a night. Don't worry about it."

"Oooh, I see Erza!" Lucy chirped, making a beeline to a relatively packed table positioned in front of the stage.

They walked across the room to meet their friends, unaware that a pair of eyes were diligently following their every step.

.

.

.

When the firm David worked for informed him that their company would be one the few companies to sponsor the Annual Fire Fighter Awards, he had been quite excited. The ceremony was a fairly famous one, and often brought out all the big wigs in town. If you were, a few low key celebrities would attend and you would have the opportunity to rub shoulders with them. His company had sponsored the ceremony once before and the night had been a very enjoyable one and had been very profitable in the name of networking and getting his name out in the industry.

Which was why when he found out they would be sponsoring it once again, he made the conscious decision to attend.

He had expected it to be a pleasant night where he would slip his business card inside a few prestigious businessmen pockets, drink some expensive wine, and celebrate the heroism in their community.

He had _not _expected to see his ex-girlfriend.

In the arms of another man no less.

David clenched his fists as he watched in disbelief. A slim figure dressed in a blood red dress glided past him, her hands firmly wrapped around the arms of a bulky looking man who looked extremely uncomfortable in a brilliantly white suit. His careful gaze followed them across the room as they settled themselves down on a table reserved for some of the fire fighters who were being honoured for their bravery.

His eyes narrowed into all imperceptible slits as he watched the large man drape an arm casually over her uncovered shoulders. He pretty much popped a blood vessel as she automatically leant into him, a content smile on her face.

"What the hell," he grunted.

"Hm?" Flare hummed in confusion, frowning at her boyfriend, "are you ok _hunny_?"

"I'm fine."

"You look very red? Are you ill? Did you drink too much al-"

"I said I'm fine for fucks sake," he snapped angrily, earning himself disapproving glares from the people who were seated at his table and neighbouring ones.

Flare recoiled backwards, visibly hurt by his outburst, "I was only asking," she huffed before resolutely turning away from him to engage the man seated next to her in conversation. On any other day, he would have apologised to his lover and whispered some sweet nothings in her ear to placate her, but he couldn't care about her when Levy was seated only a few metres away from him.

He watched as the pink haired man to her right said something and she burst out laughing. The man who _still _had his arm draped around her shoulders rolled his eyes and poked her in the side.

She smiled fondly up at him.

David felt his blood pressure rise, and without even thinking he swiftly poured the rest of the bottle of wine in front of him into his glass and drank it without hesitation.

Next to him, Flare turned slightly and raised an eyebrow, "you're drinking a bit fast tonight aren't you? Are you sure everything's alright?"

He ignored her comment, still fixated on the peculiar interactions going on before him.

Never in a million years would he have imagined Levy would move on from him so quickly. They'd only been a part for a few months a tops and he would have been lying to himself if he didn't say he had assumed she was still an emotional mess.

During the year long duration of their relationship, it was no secret to him that she was more emotionally invested in it than he was. And he had _liked _that. He had liked knowing he had a sick sort of hold over her.

The fact that she was there, flaunting her new relationship in his face like he had never even existed felt like someone had stabbed him straight through his heart.

An incredibly powerful wave of jealously swept through his entire body as he watched the man tighten his grip on Levy as she curled further and further into his embrace.

He swung his arm out, signalling for a waiter. In seconds a peppy looking waiter was standing in front of him,

"How can I help you sir?"

"Another bottle of that wine," he grunted, "charge it to my tab."

"Yes sir!"

The waiter disappeared off quickly to fetch his request and Flare stared uncertainly at her boyfriend.

"David?" she asked slowly, he was normally not a heavy drinker, but had already finished off a bottle of wine mostly to himself.

"Just _shut up_," he snarled.

That was the final straw for her. With a shriek of indignation she picked up her purse and stood up,

"I'm not going to sit here and let you insult me just because you're in a bad mood, David. When you decide to mature, I'll be at home," and with that she swivelled around and quickly marched out of the reception area.

The remaining men and women who were seated at his table shared uneasy looks.

Though David didn't notice, he was too busy watching the way Levy laughed.

_That should be me_.

The waiter returned with the bottle of wine and within moments, half of it was gone.

.

.

.

Levy frowned, she felt uneasy all of a sudden, as if somebody were watching her. Erza conveniently chose that moment to stab Natsu in the hand with a fork for his rowdy behaviour and Levy immediately dismissed her feelings of uneasiness. With the amount of noise their table was making, she would have been surprised if people _weren__'__t _staring at them.

Satisfied that she wasn't being creeped on, she subconsciously leaned closer into Gajeel's warm embrace, only barely noticing the way his fingers tightened gently around her shoulder.

She was really having a lovely time.

The members of the Fire Department had quickly wormed their way up her list of "favourite people in the world", despite only knowing them for a few months they each held a special place in her heart already.

None more so than the grumpy man who sat behind her.

"Oi, cheer up you lump," Gray shouted from across the table, already tipsy from the intake of expensive wine, "we're getting _celebrated_, you should be happy!"

Gajeel shrugged, "I hate these things."

"Weirdo," Gray said dismissively before turning to Juvia who was very much enjoying the attention Drunken Gray gave her.

"_Have some more wine Gray-sama!__"_she purred, dutifully filling up his glass.

"Thanks, Juvia-_sama!__"_ he purred back causing Juvia to turn red with glee.

"Isn't anyone going to stop her," Levy whispered as she watched Juvia pile Gray with alcohol, "I'm sure that's…well I'm what she's doing is at least somewhat illegal."

Gajeel shrugged, "as long as she doesn't take him away from the public eye, I say we've got nothing to worry about."

At that moment, Juvia chose to attempt to tug Gray up from the table, at which point Erza firmly clasped down on her shoulders and pushed her back into her seat.

Levy laughed at the look of disappoint on Juvia's face.

Their table was definitely the noisiest about. Coupled with Lucy and Natsu's bickering - Natsu was attempting to say he could walk home to avoid the drive, Juvia's plying Gray with alcohol in an attempt to lure him into a secluded closet and do God knows what with, Erza hissing and barking at them to _behave damn it_, not realising she was contributing to the noise, and Cana's loud cheering every time she drank another glass, there really wasn't any way their table _couldn't _be the loudest.

There were a few people at the table she'd never met before. She leaned into Gajeel and whispered, "who's that next to Erza?"

A quiet man with dark blue hair and an odd tattoo down his face sat, smiling serenely as Erza lectured Juvia on the law.

"Jellal. Erza's boyfriend, I guess."

"You guess?"

He snorted and shook her head, "Erza is like Lucy in the whole 'refusing to admit they're dating' thing. He's a cool guy though."

Levy smiled as she watched Erza turn to Jellal and whisper something to him. She wondered why she'd never assumed Erza was seeing anyone, the woman was certainly beautiful. She was wearing a simple, low cut, black dress with a large slit up her thigh.

"And who's that, next to Cana and Laxus? Is that her boyfriend?" she asked, nodding to a large man with russet coloured hair who was sitting in between Cana and Laxus and appeared to be cajoling both of them into a drinking game. Not that Cana needed much persuasion anyway.

The man heard her question and laughed loudly, throwing his head back, "do I look that young, little miss?" he asked with a twinkle in his eye making Levy turn red with embarrassment.

Her cheeks reddened as everyone else, Gajeel included, began laughing at her expense.

"Don't inflate his ego, Levy!" Cana laughed, shaking her head as she draped an arm around the mans wide chest, "this right here is my Pa, and, as hard as it is to believe, he's the Chief at the firehouse."

"Not that he's ever there," Laxus huffed.

"Hey! Hey!" the man said suddenly, "I have important business to be attending to you know. And I trust you guys a-"

"Save it, Gidarts," Gajeel sniggered, "we've heard your "I'm a busy man" speech way too many times for it to mean anything nowadays."

"Yeah!" Cana put in, grabbing a bottle of wine, "so shut up you slacker!"

Levy giggled as Gildarts began to pretend to be hurt by his daughters words and try to beg for her forgiveness.

The members of Magnolia Fire Department were a very odd bunch of people indeed. But, as she leant back into Gajeel's comfortable torso, she couldn't help but think she felt oddly at home with them.

Time passed quickly and conversation around the table never dulled.

Sometimes they spoke about past missions, or hilarious hi-jinks they hadn't gotten up to, or sometimes they simply sat in a comfortable silence, just enjoying the calm atmosphere they had set up.

Every now and then, the hairs on Levy neck would prick up and she wasn't able to shake the feeling that someone was staring intently at her, but every time she would whip around and peer suspiciously around the other tables in the hall, she saw nothing.

"Oi," Gajeel nudged her, "you ok?"

She bit her lip, but nodded, deciding to put the odd sensation down to the excitement of _finally _being on a real date with Gajeel.

She smiled brightly up at him, "I'm fine."

He didn't look like he believed her for one minute, but he decided to drop the topic, instead he nodded awkwardly to the designated dance area.

"You wanna go?"

Not too long ago, Juvia had managed to drag Gray out onto the dance floor, though Gray was back now lying slumped against the table with a glass of ice pressed against his head.

His shirt was also unbuttoned, but for some reason (which Levy had yet to find out), nobody else seemed particularly bothered by it.

Cana was currently trying to convince either Laxus or Gildarts to dance with her - both men were resolutely staring at the floor as if it were the most fascinating thing in all of existence.

Erza and Jellal were already dancing, and Levy couldn't help but coo in excitement as she watched Jellal spin her around.

Lucy had been dragged onto the dance floor by Natsu and was awkwardly allowing the hyperactive man to spin her wildly, like some sort of Tasmanian devil.

"I'd like that," Levy said earnestly, standing up, "can you dance?" she asked as they walked towards the dance area.

She couldn't imagine Gajeel being able to dance, but then again she hadn't imagined he'd be able to cook and he had proved her extremely wrong in that regard.

He shrugged nonchalantly, grabbing at her hand, "I'm not too bad."

She raised an eyebrow as he deftly spun her around so she was facing him. In seconds he intertwined his fingers with her own and began slowly moving around.

Like with the cooking, she realised she had been wrong to assume Gajeel didn't know how to dance. They started off quite slowly, but as the music changed tempo, Gajeel let go of her hands and pulled her closer to his chest. She automatically wrapped her arms around his neck and blushed as she was forcibly reminded of their fiery kiss back at Lucy's house not too long ago.

"I'm surprised you're so good at this," she whispered to him as they span slowly on the spot.

"Took the words right out of my mouth," he quipped, smirking as she tiptoed slightly to rest her head on his shoulders, "normally you're so clumsy."

"Hey!" she laughed, "I'm not clumsy!"

He simply snickered in response.

They danced through a few songs, and Levy found herself enjoying herself wholly. Though she didn't need it all the time, she couldn't deny that quality, intimate time with Gajeel was something she knew she could never tire of.

"Thank you," she said quietly when they finally pulled apart, "I know this isn't your usual sort of thing, but…but I'm really enjoying myself."

She laughed as he tried to fight the grin on his face but failed miserably, "nah, it's not too bad. I've got some pretty decent company."

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

They began to make their way back to the table when a blue blur dashed in front of them.

"Hi, Juvia," Levy said pleasantly.

"Hello, Levy, are you done dancing with Gajeel?"

Levy nodded, "why? Do you want to steal him from me?"

Juvia blushed but smiled, "Juvia has been trying to get Gajeel to dance formally for years. Gajeel always says no to Juvia."

Feigning a look of disappointment, Levy shoved Gajeel lightly into Juvia, "go and dance with her!" she laughed, pleased to see the look of joy on Juvia's face.

"You sure?"

"Mhm! I need to pop to the toilets anyway."

Gajeel groaned, but Levy noticed the way he looped arms with Juvia without any argument.

Now alone, she moved back to the empty table by herself.

Apparently, Cana had somehow managed to convince both Gildarts and Laxus to dance with her. She sat down and smiled brightly as she watched Gajeel and Juvia dance.

She remembered back to a time when she had genuinely believed Juvia was his girlfriend. Now she thought back on it, the idea was a ridiculous one. She could clearly see the relationship between the two was a platonic one, the way he looked at Juvia reminded her of the way she looked at Rianne. Loving, but protective - just like an older sister.

She smiled as Juvia giggled girlishly about something causing Gajeel to roll his eyes as they awkwardly danced on the spot.

Just as Gajeel span Juvia around, a waitress passed by Levy and she suddenly remembered her reason for deciding to let Juvia become Gajeel's new dance partner.

"Excuse me," she called, stopping the young woman in her tracks, "could you tell me where the ladies room is please?"

The waitress was clearly distracted and vaguely pointed off towards the back of the room before scurrying off to finish whatever job she was doing.

"Thanks," Levy muttered, shaking her head. She turned back to Gajeel and saw Juvia was leaving him and he was currently engaged in an argument with Laxus about something or other. She rolled her eyes and decided she wouldn't be missed if she quickly popped off to the toilet. Everyone else at their table was either mingling with other fire department members in the room, or on the dance floor making a fool of themselves, (mainly Natsu who was currently doing a rather complicated body slither that had Lucy groaning red faced).

Levy quickly stood up and made her way across the room towards the direction the waitress had pointed in.

She wasn't sure when the announcement would be made on who won the Awards, but she was fairly certain she would be back in time.

"Excuse me," she mumbled repeatedly as she pushed through the thronging crowd and made her way towards the door she had been directed to.

As she predicted, nobody really heard her over the loud music resulting in her having to awkwardly shove and push until she met the door.

Sighing, she turned around briefly and saw that Gajeel had returned back to the table and was sitting with a frown on his face and his arms crossed.

She smiled as she realised he was probably looking for her.

She quickly pushed open the door, deciding to hurry up before Gajeel got even more impatient, and slipped through it, frowning as she came face to face with a flight of stairs. She deliberated for a moment or two before hitching up her dress slightly to climb the staircase.

She walked up two flights before a landing appeared in front of her and she walked through it casually, brows furrowed as she tried to spot a sign that would tell her where the toilet was.

"I'm beginning to think she sent me the wrong way," she grumbled as she pushed open the first door she came across and stepped through it.

She huffed in frustration as she walked aimlessly down another corridor, wondering where on earth she was.

The hotel certainly hadn't looked this big from the outside, but she guessed it went further back than she had originally imagined.

Feeling her patience wearing thinner and thinner with each step, she resolved to try one more room before giving up and going back downstairs.

She pushed open a door the first door she came to and peered through, surprised she had walked out onto a very large balcony facing the back of the hotel. Despite it not being the location she had been intending to find, she couldn't help but smile as she stepped out further and walked to stare out at the view. It was a mild evening and the sun had already began to set, illuminating the sky with a pretty pinkish hue.

As she admired the view, the sound of footsteps scraping across the floor made her jump and she quickly whirled around to find a man standing by the other edge of the balcony.

"Oh! Oh, sorry," she giggled nervously, "I didn't know anyone else was alrea-" she froze as the man slowly turned around and looked up at her.

Her heart slowed to a halt. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open in shock.

The man smirked, "Levy."

She swallowed nervously, "D-David?"

.

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**A/N: **_DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNN!_

I'm secretly cackling evilly because I don't think _any _of you have predicted what's going to happen next muhahahaha.

New chapter should be up in a few days, I'm trying to update faster since it's the _thrilling conclusion_ so I don't want you guys to wait too long between chapters.

So yeah, please review guys ^_^ xoxoxo


	18. Chapter 18

**Smokin' Hot**

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?', and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex".

**18; **Burn

She felt as if someone had splashed a bucket of ice cold water over her entire body as she stared up at David.

His lips twitched upwards into a smirk as he took a step forward.

"Now," he said slowly, "I didn't expect to see you here."

Levy frowned as she listened to him speak, wondering why he sounded so strange. It took a moment or two for her to register to bottle of wine in one hand and the lit cigarette in the other. Her frown only deepened as she continued to stare warily at the cigarette.

She hadn't ever known him to smoke during their time together.

He took another step forwards and she squeaked in surprise and took an involuntary step backwards, hitting the stone railing of the balcony behind her.

"Why," she paused and licked her lips, suddenly all too aware of how dry they and her throat were, "why are you here?" she asked weakly.

With each passing second, she felt the blood draining out of her body.

She wasn't ready for this.

Not yet.

She didn't think she'd ever be ready.

David shrugged, he was still holding onto the bottle of alcohol but had stuck the slowly smoking cigarette butt behind his ear, "I'd rather know why you're here."

She said nothing, becoming more and more wary of the fact he was inching closer and closer to her.

"Hm, _Levy_?" he slurred her name and was close enough so she could see his eyes weren't completely focussed, "why are you here? Did you switch occupations since we last spoke?"

She shook her head, finding herself tongue tied.

"Oh?" he bent down and smiled sinisterly in front of her, "so why are you here then? Are you gate crashing?"

She wrinkled her nose and leant back as the smell of alcohol wafted in front of her and assaulted her senses.

"That's not really any of your business," she managed to say, trying, and failing to make her voice sound assertive and as if she wasn't about to collapse from nerves, "now, if you don't mind, I should be getting ba-"

She froze, stunned, as he lashed out and grabbed hold of her upper hand, squeezing it tightly to keep her in place.

"Now, now," he breathed, pressing his thumb down on her arm, "why are you in such a rush to leave? Can't you stay and talk?"

"I have _nothing _to say to you," she hissed, doing her best to squirm from out of his vice like grip, "let go of me."

"Heh," he smirked, "you don't have anything to say to me, but I…I have a lot to say to you."

Her eyes squeezed shut in pain as he pressed down ever harder on her arm, sending a jolt of pain through her. When he let go, she was sure there would be a bruise.

"Stop it!" she cried out, straining to free herself, "let go of me!"

"I told you, we need to talk."

"You lost any chance of ever having a civilised conversation with me when you decided to cheat, you _bastard_!" she growled, glaring up at him defiantly. Her eyes were brimming with tears, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

"When did you get so feisty?" he asked, his eyebrow quirking up in disbelief.

Despite the situation, she smirked, "a lot has changed since you left."

"I can see that," he grumbled, taking a step backwards and dropping her arm to take a swig from the bottle he clutched onto, "I can…" he paused and glared at her, "I can definitely see that."

She bit her lip worriedly as she caught sight of the heated glare he was sending her way. The area he held onto on her arm was a bright red and she could distinctly see the imprint of his fingers on it. Wincing in pain, she gently placed her hand over it and rubbed it slowly, trying to dull some of the pain.

"I wasn't expecting this," he growled, pacing up at down the balcony. Nervously, her eyes darted towards the door she had come in through and she half heartedly wondered what would happen if she made a quick run for it.

Would he let her go, or, would he surprise her again and lash out at her pinning her down.

"I thought you loved me?" he hissed suddenly, making her jump.

There was a wild look in his eyes and she could see the bottle he held was over halfway finished.

"_I love you David. I can't wait to get married and have children and blahblahblah" _he said in a high pitched voice he probably thought sounded like hers, "what happened to all of that? Huh, Levy? What happened to that?"

Anger pooled up in her stomach and lashed out at him like a whip, "what happened to all of that?" she repeated, glaring at him with more passion than she'd ever felt before in her life, "that all vanished the moment you cheated on me! How _dare _you come to me now and act like you're confused. You broke us up David! Your foolish acts ended whatever I may have felt for you."

Judging by the look of disbelief on his face, she could tell he hadn't expected her to reply like that. For all it was worth, he looked as if she had physically slapped him across the face - something she was sorely tempted to do.

"Now," she said, jutting her chin upwards, "if you'll excuse me, I need to get back before my _boyfriend_ starts to worry."

It was a low blow, purposely dropping the word "boyfriend" in there, she knew it was. But at that point, she was beyond caring. He had already dared to lay a hand on her and then had the nerve to ask her if she _loved him_. Normally, Levy was a very peaceful and loving person, and was willing to give most people the benefit of the doubt in most situations.

Unfortunately for him, that courtesy did not extend to David and she felt no remorse for her brash and rude words.

David chuckled darkly as she began to storm quickly across the balcony, "I knew he was your boyfriend. That…that man."

Levy froze and turned to stare at him, realising she had been correct when she had thought someone was staring at her intently earlier on.

She rolled her eyes as he reached behind his ear, took the cigarette and placed it in his mouth, "I didn't know you smoked," she commented dismissively as she continued briskly walking across the balcony.

"It's a recent habit," he muttered as he inhaled, "a friend thought it could help to relieve my…sudden bout of stress."

Shaking her head in disbelief, she strode past him, "goodbye, David." and flung open the balcony door before disappearing back inside the hotel once again.

Her heart was racing so fast, she wondered how it hadn't jumped free from her ribcage yet. She'd never been so naïve to assume she'd never run into David again, but she certainly hadn't expected it to occur so soon and definitely not at the awards ceremony. His entire presence threw her completely and she wondered if she'd be able to enjoy the rest of her evening knowing that David was lingering somewhere close by.

"Ouch," she hissed in pain. She'd been absentmindedly pawing the sore spot on her arm and had pressed down too hard. Wincing, she lifted up her hand and grimaced as she stared at the still bright red spot on her arm. If anything, the colouring was becoming more and more darker and she wondered briefly if she needed medical attention.

The sound of a door slamming shut made her jump and she cautiously turned around to find David stalking quickly down the corridor behind her.

A feel of dread erupted in her as he got closer and closer and she had to do her best to try and still her nerves.

_He's just going to walk past, he's just going to walk past and glare and be done with it, _she told herself in what she hoped was a reassuring tone, _he's just going to walk past and-_

She shrieked as once again he grabbed onto her arm. This time he went one step further and pushed her roughly into the wall behind her. She stumbled backwards as her back hit the wall and she heard the heel on her left shoe snap off.

"What are you doing?" she cried as he pushed onto her shoulder blade, and she knew she'd have another bruise there.

The cigarette was behind his ear again, with soft wisps of smoke lazily floating out of it.

"I can't do this Levy," he slurred, "I need you back."

Despite the situation, she almost laughed in his face, "I already told you, you lost that chance when you decided to cheat. Now leave me alone, before I scream."

Her threat didn't have the desired effect on the man. Instead of releasing his hold on her and stepping backwards, he chuckled lowly.

The sound made her want to cry.

"This hotel's been booked out for this dumb awards night," he informed her, a strange glint in his eyes, "every single person in here is about two floors down. Scream all you want."

"David?" she whispered fearfully, as his words settled in.

There was nobody around to help her.

And she was suddenly feeling very fearful for her life.

"If I scream, _somebody_ will hear," she said, sounding more determined than she actually felt, "and Gajeel will start looking for me soon."

David snorted, "that's his name? _Gajeel_? What does he do, this Gajeel?"

"He's a fire fighter," she said proudly.

"Ah, so that explains your appearance," he said quietly, more to himself than to her, "you know, I never imagined you'd get over me so quickly."

"I never imagined you'd cheat on me. So I guess we're even."

She jumped a little as his hand moved from her shoulder and moved upwards to cup her face. His hands were cold and she winced as he slowly dragged one finger down her cheek.

"You can't tell me you don't miss this," he whispered slowly, though she wasn't sure if that was his intent or if the alcohol was beginning to hit him a little harder. His alcohol fuelled breath fanned over the breadth of her face and she wrinkled up her nose in disgust.

"I don't miss this," she said honestly, "not at all."

She winced as a look of pure fury flashed across his eyes, but he did nothing to her. Instead he let go of her face and moved back ever so slightly.

"When did you become such a bitch," he grumbled, before taking a swig from the bottle again, "what happened to the sweet, caring, Levy I used to love? I want _her _back."

She almost laughed, "I told you, a lot has changed since we broke up. And I definitely don't want you back. I'm happy with Gajeel. Happier than I ever was with you," she added as an afterthought as she realised she _was_.

Although she and Gajeel hadn't been together for nearly as long as she had been with David, she couldn't ever remember feeling so entirely happy with David. There had always been _something_ wrong with her relationship with David, no matter how desperately she tried to push it to the back of her mind whilst they were dating.

"Do you love him?"

"E-eh?" the question caught her off guard.

"Do. You. Love. Him?"

He had a dull look in his eyes as he stared at her, waiting for her answer.

"T-that's not really any of your business," she stammered, still thrown by the question.

"It's a simple question Levy," he growled.

"And I told you it's none of your business," she growled back, glaring at him, "I'm with Gajeel now, and no matter how much you want to deny it, I'm happy with him."

"You _used _to be happy with me," he spat bitterly, grabbing the cigarette from his ear again and ramming it in his mouth, "you used to say I was your one true love. If you loved me so much, why won't you give me another chance?"

"You don't deserve a second chance."

He sneered at her, taking the cigarette away from his mouth and moving closer to box her in again, "you really think he's any better? You really think you're so special he won't do the same thing I did?"

Her eyes widened and her lips quivered as he spoke bitterly.

"He'll get bored. He'll come across someone _better _than you. Someone prettier. Someone with longer legs. Someone with more curves. Someone infinitely better than you. And he'll leave you. Just like I did. He's no different."

She didn't even realise tears were beginning to fall until her vision began to blur.

"He's different!"

"He's not."

She remembered her conversation with Rianne earlier and tried her hardest to remember Rianne's words, but she couldn't. Instead, she could only see David's sneering face telling her she was worthless. Telling her she'd always be second best. Telling her that Gajeel would leave her.

"Stop it," she whispered, "stop it, please. Why can't you let me…why can't you let me be happy?"

David smirked, "you're _mine_. Do you understand? Nobody else's. Got it?"

Her lips quivered as she looked up at him and stared into his unfocussed eyes. There was no kindness, no love, or warmth in them and she shivered.

"I said, do you understand?" he growled.

She opened her mouth and then froze and Gajeel's smirking face drifted into the forefront of his mind. _His_ eyes were warm, they were kind, and they held a lot of love - no matter how reluctant he was to show it.

She licked her lips and felt her resolve grow.

"He is different," she said quietly, "and I'm not yours. I'm _his_," she said firmly, glaring up at him defiantly.

The act of disobedience didn't go tell well with David,

"You little _bitch_," he roared angrily. Levy's eyes widened in shock as he dropped the wine bottle to floor, sending it smashing into pieces and oozing the alcoholic substance all over the floor around their feet.

"You were lucky to have me," he snapped, lifting the cigarette in the air. He brought it down quickly and pushed it against her forearm.

She howled out in pain as the hot stub seared into her skin, "stop it! Somebody, please…_help_," she cried as he twisted the cigarette angrily on her arm.

"I told you, nobody can hear you!"

Whimpering, she wiggled about underneath him and snatched her arm backwards, dropping the cigarette to the floor as she gained freedom from his grasp.

She barely had time to sob in relief before he was on her again, this time yanking her hair backwards. He pulled her and then let go, making her fall with a thud to the floor. Both her shoes slipped off her feet, with the right heel also snapping off as she fell.

"David, stop!" she cried as he knelt down and cupped her chin with his thumb and forefinger. She looked into his eyes and saw not even a single shadow of the man she had once thought she loved. His gaze looked hollow and empty. To her surprise, tears were slowly trailing down his cheek.

"I'm so sorry Levy," he mumbled, still squeezing her cheeks and chin in his hands, "I didn't mean to…I-I-I just can't stand to see you with another man."

Crying, she twisted her head from side to side, but every time she moved an inch, he would roughly tug her back into the centre making her face him.

In the background, neither noticed the small stream of smoke that was slowly rising from the cigarette that had been dropped to the floor.

"Please, please, please Levy," he begged, using his other hand to cradle her face, "give me another chance. We used to be so good together."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing from him, "after you've manhandled me repeatedly, and stubbed a cigarette out on my _arm_," she said in disbelief, "after all that, you really think I'd go back to you?" she laughed dryly and shook her head, "I'd sooner die."

The strange look of serenity that had appeared onto his face quickly disappeared and was instantaneously replaced with a furious glare. He opened his mouth, possibly to snarl out another insult, but whatever he had been about to say seemed to escape him.

Levy frowned as she watched his mouth drop open in surprise and his eyes seemed to glaze over. Just as she had been about to ask him what on Earth his problem was, the familiar smell of smoke reached her nose.

Fearing the worst, she slowly turned her head behind her. Her heart sunk as she caught sight of the small fire that was slowly burning up the carpet. Her eyes zoned in on the cigarette and was surprised to see it had created a fire already, she had assumed it was already mostly out.

The next few things to occur, seemed to happen in slow motion. At first, she could feel David's hand still on her face and his presence around her, then she felt him roughly drop her face and push her backwards. Confused, she turned around and watched as he scrambled upwards, frantically clawing at the wall to help him stand upright.

A strangled squawk of surprise fell from his mouth as he slowly began taking steps backwards, eyes still fixated on the smouldering cigarette behind her.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" he groaned, moving backwards faster and faster, _"shit_."

"David?" she called, alarmed as he whirled around and began dashing down the corridor, as if he couldn't get away from her fast enough.

It was at that moment did she finally hear and odd crackling sound. Whipping her head back behind her, her eyes widened in horror as she saw the cigarette had landed in the spilt alcohol.

Only then did she remember alcohol was a flammable substance.

.

.

.

"Oi, Lucy."

Lucy opened her mouth and widened her eye in mock shock as she turned to face Gajeel, "wow Gajeel, I wasn't sure you even knew what my actual name was!"

She giggled but cut it short when she realised he hadn't snapped back sarcastically at her already, "what's wrong?"

"Have you seen Levy?"

She mimicked his frown as she glanced briefly around the hall, "no," she said slowly, "no, I haven't seen her in a while."

Gajeel grunted in thanks and then moved swiftly on, going to Erza and Juvia to ask them if they'd seen his girlfriend. Their answers mirrored Lucy's and the worry he felt began to grow with each passing second.

Whilst being friends with Juvia had taught him that girls often spent an odd amount of time in the bathroom, he'd never known it to take so damn long. By his estimates, she'd been gone for nearly twenty minutes.

Frustrated, he moved back to his seat around the table and settled for glaring at nothing in particular.

"Smile, Gajeel," Juvia ordered from her seat, "Juvia is sure Levy is fine."

He shrugged, "I'm gonna go look for her," he said to Juvia. Something just wasn't right, and he immediately began to fear the worst. Images of Levy tripped in the bathroom and slamming her head against the porcelain sink leaving her unconscious on the floor flooded his mind and he all but jump out of his chair.

"Do you want Juvia to come?" she asked, already standing up from her seat without waiting for him to answer.

The pair had barely made it two steps away from their table when a sound they were all extremely familiar with rang out through the building.

Gajeel's eyes narrowed and his heart lurched as the fire alarm began to ring.

.

.

.

Panting, Levy dashed down the corridor.

The fire had spread at a ridiculously fast rate. One moment, she had been watching in shock as the small damp patch of alcohol was lit aflame, the next she was scrambling to get away as the small patch spread along the carpet soon creating a mini inferno in the corridor. She had half heartedly fanned the flames, hoping to do some good, but gave up as she realised it was only serving to make the fire grow more.

Whimpering, she had pushed away and dashed down the corridor in the direction David had gone in. Behind her she could hear the crackling sound of the fire rapidly chasing after her, and smoke was beginning to rise.

She could almost laugh at the absurdity of it all.

One minute she'd been enjoying a lovely evening Gajeel and the firehouse, the next David was manhandling her, and the next she was fleeing from an ever growing blaze.

It was almost like her life were some sort of sitcom.

She gasped in shock as the temperature in the corridor rose suddenly. Glancing backwards briefly she saw the fire had grown once again and was barrelling towards her.

"Oh…oh my," she whispered as the fire tore apart the carpet and began to peel the wallpaper off the walls.

The smoke levels were rising with each passing second and she found herself having to squint slightly to stop her eyes from watering.

Heart racing, she dashed down a corridor and sighed with relief as she came to a door. She reached out and grabbed for the handle.

"E-eh?" she gasped as she tugged on the handle with all her might, only for it to budge barely an inch before slamming shut.

Behind the door she could hear the sound of people yelling and rushing around.

"Hello!" she called, pounding on the door with her fists, "can anybody hear me? Help! Help me, please!"

She paused and pushed her ear against the door and tried to listen to see if anyone had heard her. Judging by the ruckus she could hear, she doubted it.

Biting her lip, she turned around, contemplating running back down the corridor to take a new route. Her plans were almost immediately squashed as the watched the blaze burn up and block the path she had been about to take.

Realising the door she stood in front was probably her only chance of breaking free she turned back to it and flung her body against the door. Smoke was quickly clouding her vision and causing her eyes to water. Whimpering, she tried once again to open the heavy door by flinging her body at it. She ignored the pain she could feel erupting in her shoulder as the door creaked open just a little, before slamming shut again.

Something heavy had fallen on it. She whimpered out in defeat and slid against the motionless door. Smoke billowed from the corridor around the corner and she knew the vicious flames weren't too far away.

There was no escape.

Her only chance of survival was through a door she had no hope of opening. It was either that or jump out of the relatively small window not too far from her.

She eyed the window hopefully for a few seconds, before hanging her head in dismissal. Even if she could somehow reach the small window and squeeze her way through, she wasn't sure she'd survive the large descent to the ground.

She winced as she realised she was debating burning to death or falling to her demise. Neither was a very enticing option.

The temperature in corridor began to rise quickly and she found herself panting for air. The thick wave of smoke was almost too dense for her to see clearly in front, but she could just amount make out a thronging orange blaze steadily creeping towards her.

She gulped as she realised she could practically feel its scalding tendrils of flame dancing out to lash and whip at her skin.

She was going to die.

Her only solace in the sombre thought was that the alarm had sounded pretty quickly after the fire had broken out.

She felt happy knowing the hotel should have been mostly evacuated. Nobody would have to die a needless death.

Only her.

She wondered if David had made it out ok. Despite everything he had done to her and put her through, she hoped he had, she just couldn't bring herself to hate him.

Water dripped from her nose and she quickly reached up to rub her eyes. She hadn't even realised she had begun crying.

As much as she wanted to put on a brave face and stop her tears, she just _couldn__'__t_.

She didn't want to die.

She had so much she wanted to do with her life.

She wanted to travel.

She wanted to read every book ever written.

She wanted to decipher ancient languages.

She wanted to get married.

She wanted to have children.

She wanted to grow old with Gajeel.

She wa-

She gasped as Gajeel's smirking face clouded her vision.

Her tears increased ten fold.

She never even said goodbye to him properly. Her heart wrenched as she realised he probably still didn't know where she'd vanished to. She wondered if he was searching through the rest of guests, assuming she had gotten out ok.

With an anguished sob she slid down to the floor and closed her eyes.

She never even got to tell him she loved him.

Because she was sure now.

She loved him.

She really did.

And it was _real_ love, not that fake stuff she had felt with David and had confused with love. This was a whole different ball park. It was an all encompassing feeling that left her jittery whenever she thought of it. She yearned to spend time with him, to find out more about him, to pick his brain. She wanted to let him in, let him know every little thing about her. The good and the bad.

She _loved _him.

And he'd never know.

Her breathes were getting more and more ragged with each passing second, and she couldn't tell if it was because of her tears or the smoke anymore.

She cried out in pain as the flames got impossibly close and she realised this was it. She could smell the fire slowly burning through the carpet below her feet and knew she would be next.

"Gajeel," she whispered as her vision started to fade out, the smoke finally getting to her. Her head slumped against the back of the door and in her last moments of clarity she thought she felt the door give way.

"Gajeel," she whispered again as she felt the searing pain of flames wrapping themselves around her foot, "I really do love you."

And then everything went black.

.

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**A/N: **_Muhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha._

_Muhahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahaha_

_Muhahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha_

_MUHHAHAHAHAHA_

Yeah…so if you thought the previous chapter was a bad cliff-hanger…welcome to chapter 18 ^_^

I literally have nothing to say so if you could direct yourselves to the review button and send me abuse for having this horrible cliff-hanger I will be very happy! (I am jk please don't send me abuse I will _weep_) [also 600 reviews? Holy Moly you guys are fabulous]

Please review xoxoxo


	19. Chapter 19

**Smokin' Hot**

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?', and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex".

**19; **Loose Ends

Porlyusica narrowed her eyes in annoyance as she entered the stuffy room. A lump sat on the armchair next to the bed glanced up and glared at her.

"_You again?" _they both snarled as Porlyusica closed the door behind her.

"I thought I told you to be gone by the next time I came," Porlyusica sniffed as she moved towards the bed, "you're extremely annoying."

"And I thought I told you, I'm not going anywhere till she wakes up," Gajeel snapped back as he watched the elderly doctor pick up charts and read through them, "and you're bloody unbearable."

Porlyusica simply hummed and did her best to ignore his grumble of how unprofessional she was. She'd heard it all before.

Though excellent at what she did, Porlyusica's bedside manner was severely lacking. She just did not enjoy interacting with people, preferring to work in silence and solitude and be on her way once her patient regained consciousness. On the rare occasions she did have to deal with a conscious patient, she found she could dose them with enough sedatives to keep them loopy enough so she didn't have to speak to them. No, the patients were not the problem.

The problem was their damn loved ones.

Family and friends made her job much more difficult than it really needed to be. They were always hovering over her patients, moaning, crying, begging, and praying for them to wake up. It annoyed her to no end. As if their begging and pleading had anything to do with whether a patient woke or not! How ridiculous! And then once they realised nothing they were doing did any good, they would turn to her and begin begging her to do all she could to save their careless brat. That left her positively furious. It was as if they were suggesting she wouldn't do her job as an _excellent _doctor unless they begged her. How rude!

If she could have it her way, all visitors to the hospital would be banned. It would be a strictly come and go service for patients. Unfortunately for her, when she had proposed the suggestion to the Board of Directors at the hospital, they had told her that her ideas were inhumane.

So she was forced to suffer through tears, pleading, and prayers.

"Oi, doc?"

She scowled and turned to face the black haired brute, "what?" she said coldly. It was strange, when she spoke in a cold tone to other visitors they would stare at her warily and then back off, but it didn't seem to have that sort of effect on him. Every time she glared or scowled or snapped at him he would bite back with more ferocity than she had ever seen before.

"How's she doing?"

_That_ was another thing she hated about visitors. They had this insane need for updates. Couldn't they just leave her in peace and wait until their loved one woke up? Why did they need to bother her?

"She's still unconscious. The second degree burns are healing well. Not so much the third degree ones," she said in clipped tones, hoping it would discourage him. After being in the presence of the gruff man for the last two days, she really should have known better.

"And what are you gonna do about that?" he asked with narrowed eyes.

"Absolutely nothing," she huffed, "her burns have been treated, and the toxic smoke has been removed from her system. There is simply nothing else I can do. The rest is up to her."

"What kind of doctor are you?"

"A doctor who is tired of your foolish questions," she said and then shook her head, "look. I understand McGarden is-"

"Levy. Her name is Levy."

"I understand _McGarden_ is," she continued, ignoring his interruption, "is an important person to you – for reasons I cannot fathom," she added under her breath, "but you sitting over her with that hideous glare isn't doing her any good. How is a sick person supposed to get well if they're suffocated by a depressing aura all day?"

"So you're saying it's my fault she's still unconscious?" he growled.

"Yes. Go away."

Gajeel twitched, "has anybody ever told you, your bedside manner is terrible?"

"Quite frequently, yes. I am quite serious though. I would like you to leave for a while. I can taste your worry and angst in the air and it's making _me _feel quite sick. I cannot imagine how it's making McGarden feel."

"You just want me to leave," he muttered, crossing his arms across his chest and glaring at her defiantly.

"That too."

The two glared at each other for a few long moments before Gajeel eventually grunted and ducked his head. He had never met a woman more infuriating than the doctor before him, but, he decided she was right. He had spent the last 48 hours by Levy's side. Getting past security had been difficult, but at the time he had thought he was doing a good thing though now he wondered if Porlyusica's words had more truth to them than her just wanting him out of her hair.

Besides, he gingerly sniffed the air; he decided he could do with a shower.

Not looking up at Porlyusica, he stood up and with practised gentleness, clasped her small hand within his own and squeezed it.

"Don't you go leaving me, got it, Shrimp?" he grunted before giving her hand one last squeeze and letting it drop back limp onto her blanket.

He stood up straight and moved towards the door, only pausing to talk to Porlyusica who was regarding him with a strange look he couldn't quite place.

"Listen up doc," he said brusquely, "I'm leaving her in your hands. You let anything happen to her and I won't forgive you, got it?"

Porlyusica smirked, "is that a threat Redfox?"

"Yeah."

"Duly noted, now _leave_."

He stared longingly at Levy for one brief second longer before turning around and leaving her hospital room, closing the door behind him.

Once he was gone, Porlyusica sighed in relief.

Hesitantly, she turned and regarded the sleeping woman before her.

"You are a very lucky young woman;" she said softly, "that brute loves you very much. If you can hear me, I'd advise you to do your best to wake soon. I'm not sure his patience will stretch much further."

She watched the rise and fall of Levy's chest for a few blissfully peaceful minutes before she shook her head and opened the door. She was normally extremely good at not getting involved in the emotions of her patients and their visitors, but it had been extremely hard to ignore the look in Gajeel's eyes when he asked her not to leave him.

It had been a long, long time since she had seen such unhindered love and, despite herself, she couldn't help but utter a small prayer for young Levy McGarden.

.

.

.

Dying was an odd sensation, she mused as she continued to fall.

When she had first begun to feel unconsciousness creeping up on her at the hotel, she had come to terms with the fact that she was going to die. It wasn't something she was entirely happy with, but she had accepted it. She had assumed it would be painful – something she was correct about. She winced as she remembered the searing pain of flames licking at her skin, but she had also assumed it would be quick.

As she continued to fall through the air she reflected on just how incorrect that assumption had been.

She had assumed she would just black and out and never see the light of day again, but when she next opened her eyes she was falling. She couldn't explain it as anything else but that. She wasn't sure what she had fallen from, for in every direction she turned she could see nothing but complete emptiness, but she knew she was falling.

She could feel the cold and brutal wind whipping at her face as she descended at frightening speeds through the empty sky. In the first few hours of falling, she had vainly tried grabbing out wildly; naively hoping she would be able to latch onto something that would stop her descent.

Now she simply lay there limply and allowed the ferocious winds to carry her. She wasn't sure how long she'd been falling for, but no sign of ground to finally end her descent appeared before her. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

Every now and then she thought she heard the sounds of a faraway voice whispering her name but when she would snap her head around and squint into the empty vastness around her she found nobody and convinced herself she was imagining it.

Every time that happened, she noticed she would speed up and for a few heart wrenching seconds she wondered if this was it. Was she finally about to hit the ground and free herself of the strange limbo she found herself in.

_Don't you go leaving me, got it, Shrimp?_

Her eyes snapped open and she whirled around wildly, she was sure she wasn't imagining it this time. She heard a voice. She heard a voice loud and clear. She couldn't put a face to the voice, but she could definitely hear him.

She stretched her hands out, fumbling for the air around her.

"Hello?" she called, her voice echoing in the vastness, "_hello?"_

Without noticing, she began to slow down and soon began to feel as if she were simply floating lazily to the ground instead of barrelling towards it.

_That brute loves you very much. If you can hear me, I'd advise you to do your best to wake soon. _

Again.

A different voice this time, but she could definitely hear a voice. She frowned and furrowed her brows as she did her best to remember who was talking to her.

She glanced all around her trying to find the person who the disembodied voice belonged to. Left, right, up, down.

Her eyes widened in fear as she stared downwards. For the first time since she had begun to fall, she could see the ground beneath her. And it looked horribly close.

She began thrashing around and lashing out at the air, trying to grab onto nothing.

She didn't want to hit the ground.

There was somebody else here. She _heard _them.

"Please!" she cried as the ground inched closer and closer, "please! Please, whoever you are, please help me! _Help me_!"

Who had been calling her name?

Who was the brute?

Who loved her?

Why weren't they here?

She screamed as the ground zoomed in closer and she realised in a matter of moments she would finally be gone. Free from limbo.

"I don't want to die," she whispered, "please…please…help me…"

Her eyes widened in shock as a tall figure walked slowly across the ground and looked up at her. She couldn't make out the face, but she could see a head of messy black hair.

For the life of her, she couldn't help but think he looked familiar.

"Help me! Please!" she screamed down at him. She could see his face now and the odd sense of familiarity was only increasing with each passing second.

He was smirking up at her, "oi!" he shouted in a deep voice that made her heart leap in excitement, "Levy."

He outstretched his arms and in seconds it all came back to her. Tears began to flow unbidden down her cheeks as she too outstretched her arms.

She remembered him now.

"Gajeel," she whispered, closing her eyes tightly, as she plummeted to the ground and into his arms.

.

.

.

When she opened her eyes she expected to be nuzzled in the safety and warmth of Gajeel's arms. She definitely hadn't been expecting to look up to see a dull hospital ceiling above her.

She most certainly hadn't been expecting to be attacked the moment she blinked.

"Levy?"

"Levy?"

"_Levyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"_

She gasped in shock as two blurs jumped on her and squeezed her tightly.

"G-guys…" she whispered hoarsely, a small smile on her lips, "I…um…I can't breathe."

Jet and Droy quickly pounced backwards, wary of crushing the object of their affections so soon after she had finally woken up.

"We were so worried!" Jet sniffed, inching his seat forwards so it was directly next to her bed.

"So worried!" Droy echoed as he mimicked Jet's movements, "we thought we were gonna lose you!"

She smiled weakly up at them, "no way. If I wasn't here, who'd look after you two, hm? How long have I been out?"

"Nearly four days."

"O-oh."

Though not the face she had been expecting to see, she couldn't deny she was extremely happy to find her two best friends.

"What happened Levy?" Droy asked uncertainly after they had calmed down, "your parents said there was a fire. And we didn't believe them,"

"We thought there had to be some sort of mistake," Jet took over, "the likeliness of you being involved in two fires in such a short space of time..."

"We just didn't believe it! But then we came here, and you were lying in bed, all burnt and bruised," Droy wailed, "we thought you were going to die!"

"So did I," Levy said earnestly, remembering the way she had slumped against the door in defeat. She frowned slightly, "and...and how did I survive?" she asked, "I'm not complaining, but...but, I was trapped. I couldn't get the door open, I should've died!"

Jet and Droy shared a strange glance.

"What?"

"Your..."

_"_Your..._boyfriend_" they grumbled reluctantly,"he found you and saved you," Jet murmured.

Somehow, Levy thought, she always knew that was the case. Still, as she looked at the gloomy expression on Jet and Droy's faces she couldn't help but sigh in exasperation, "really? Really guys? He saved me twice now, and you still can't find it in your hearts to like him, just a little bit?"

"It's not that we don't like him..."

"Yeah, we're extremely grateful he saved you..."

"We just don't want you to leave us."

"Again."

Levy smiled kindly at them, deciding that though they might seem like grown men to the outside world, they were really nothing but little boys.

"I'm never going to leave you guys. I love you, and you know that, but...Gajeel...well...I..." she trailed off and smiled weakly up at them.

"You love him, don't you?" Jet asked, a soft smile of his own forming on his face.

She ducked her head and blushed, opting not to say anything.

Her silence told them everything they needed to know.

With a knowing glance between them, the two nodded and made a pact to get to know Gajeel a little better. It was quite clear to them both that he was going to be sticking around for a little longer.

.

.

.

When she next opened her eyes, she smiled brightly.

"Hi," she said grinning up at Gajeel.

He blinked several times before his lips split and he bared his pearly white teeth in a grateful grin, "took your time," he muttered as he leaned forward and in seconds plucked her from her hospital bed and crushed her against his chest.

She smiled and leaned into his warm embrace, finding that unlike Jet and Droy's rough greeting earlier that day, she enjoyed Gajeel's wholly.

She stretched her arms as far as they would go and carefully wound them around his back, "you saved me," she whispered, still burying her face into his chest.

He pulled back slightly and bumped his forehead on her own, "I told you I always would, didn't I?" he muttered, echoing his sentiments from that evening they had had dinner with her family.

"No," she shook her head, clasped his cheek with her hand and smiled weakly up at him, tears pricking her eyes, "not just with the fire."

He frowned but said nothing.

"When I was unconscious, I thought I was going to die," she said quietly, "I was just falling and falling, it wouldn't stop. I couldn't remember anything, I just knew I wanted to die. There was no point in surviving when all I could do was fall," she swallowed thickly and forced herself to look him in the eye. Before everything had happened, she had rued the fact she hadn't been able to tell him her true feelings. Well, she would not allow that to happen again, she didn't even care if he didn't feel the same way, he _had _to know.

"I kept hearing your voice though. You kept saying my name. You kept begging me not to die. You kept bullying me!"

His cheeks reddened slightly, "o-oi, I didn't know you could hear that."

She ploughed on, ignoring his little interruption. She found it was easier to speak now she had started, "at first I thought I was imagining it, because I couldn't see _anyone_, I thought I was going insane. But then...just before I hit the ground and I think I was going to die, I heard you again. And I didn't want to die anymore. Because of you. All my memories came flooding back and you were there. Waiting for me on the ground, with your arms stretched out waiting to catch me. Waiting to save me. For the first time since I started falling, _I wanted to live_. I suddenly remembered the man I love was waiting for me, and he's a very impatient man."

She leaned backwards a smiled, not caring that tears were trailing freely down her cheeks as she stared at him.

He blinked at her and, despite herself, she couldn't help but chuckle.

"I love you Gajeel," she said clearly and proudly, "a-an-and, I know you probably don't feel the same way just yet and I don't need you to say it to me b-b-ecause it's just enough that I to-"

"Shut up," he grunted, dragging her forcefully towards him again, "how the hell do you know how I feel?"

"Eh?"

"I've saved you from a burning building _twice_ - and one of those times I didn't even get paid for it - and you still don't get that you're the most important person in my life?" he growled gruffly, almost angrily, "you're an annoying, weird, clumsy, midget bookworm but you're _mine_. And I don't get what I'm supposed to do to show you that!"

They sat, staring intensely at one another for a few long moments before Levy finally threw her head back and laughed.

"Oi?" Gajeel asked with a frown as he let go of her and allowed her to collapse back onto her bed in her fit of laughter, "what's so funny?"

"Nothing," she said through her chuckles, "nothing at all."

As she laughed, fuelled by Gajeel's look of utter confusion, she couldn't help but shake her head at her previous fear that Gajeel might not feel the same way. Even though he hadn't actually spoke the particular four lettered word, her outburst told her all she needed to know.

He loved her.

Her laughed subsided as the thought settled in.

He _loved _her.

A peaceful smile spread over her lips and she turned to face him again. His cheeks were red and he was scratching the back of his head in embarassment or nerves, she couldn't quite place which one it was.

"So thank you," she finished, "thank you for saving me."

He shrugged nonchalantly, but returned the smile. After a few moments of sitting in a peaceful silence, he smile turned into a frown.

"You gonna tell me what the hell happened?"

"Ah," she hummed, she knew she had to Gajeel about what had happened. Jet and Droy had asked her again and she had told them a watered down version of the story, editing out everything that had happened with David. Yet she knew she couldn't lie to Gajeel, she had to tell him everything.

"Your arm," he said suddenly and pointed to the piece of skin that wasn't covered by bandages, "what's that on your arm?"

She frowned but looked downwards, shocked to see her skin was a sick purplish hue. She hadn't even noticed it before.

"Your crazy doctor says that not from the fire. She says those are fingerprint marks. What the hell happened?"

The warmth and love she had seen in his eyes previously was absent and had been replaced with a slowly smouldering fury.

"Who did that to you?"

She didn't miss the way his fists clenched on his lap and he waited, somewhat, patiently for her answer.

She bit her lip nervously and took a deep breath before she told him. She told him everything, about how she'd come across David on the balcony and how he'd touched her. She watched his eyes widen in shock when she told him how he pressed his cigarette down on her arm. And she watched his face contort with unsurpressed fury as she whispered how he left her to burn.

"That...that...that bastard," he said quietly when she was finished, "I'll kill him."

"Gajeel!" she gasped, "please. I know...I know what he did was wrong-"

"He _hurt _you," he growled, glancing at her bruised arm again, "he put his hands on you. Then he left you to die," he said, staring at her as if she were crazy, "and you don't even want to call the police?" he asked incredulously.

"I'm alive aren't I?" she replied meekly, "no harm no foul?"

"You were unconscious for four days. And you might not have been ok!" his voice was rising with each passing second now, "if I was a second later, it could've been too late. And you want to let that bastard _go_?"

"I want to forget about him!" she shouted firmly, "I want to forget about every single piece of pain he's brought me and just _be happy with you_. I'm alive. I'll be out of here in a day or two, and as far as I'm concerned, everything is fine. Sometimes you just have to forgive and forget."

He shook his head.

"Gajeel! _Gajeel_, promise me. Promise me you'll leave the police out of this. I'm sure David feels guilty enough as it is."

He glared at her for a few seconds before reluctantly shaking his head and sighing, "I won't get the police involved. The hotel think the fire occured due to a fault of their own anyway."

"Than-" she began, sighing with relief. Getting the police involved would mean should have to see David again, and as far as she was concerned if she saw him in a million years that would be too soon.

"But I swear to God, if I ever see him," he slammed his fist into his open palm, "he put his hands on you. He _marked _you..." he trailed off and looked up at her, and in that moment Levy knew there was no convincing him otherwise.

"Fine," she sighed, "but try not to hurt him too much. I don't want to be bailing _you _out of jail anytime soon."

Gajeel laughed loudly and just like that, the horrible cloud of tension that had been hovering over them was gone. Levy sighed happily and relaxed as Gajeel began poking her, expressing his annoyance at her taking "so damn long!" to wake up.

She laughed as he told her about how her family had forced him to eat dinner with them, because they were worried about him.

She giggled when he revealed to her how the fire department had avoided hospital security and snuck into her hospital room to wish her well.

And she smiled with pride when he finally told her that the Magnolia Fire Department had won their awards, _"before you rudely interrupted"._

The past few months had been bumpy ones, but as she listened to Gajeel snigger about Lucy and Natsu finally coming out as an official couple, she realised she had high hopes for her future.

As long as the man seated next to her was by her side.

.

.

.

"I'm not a child you know," she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest in annoyance.

Gajeel said nothing as he hopped out of his car, slammed the door, and quickly jogged over to her side. She raised an eyebrow in disbelief as he unlocked her door and flung it open.

"I said, I'm not a child Gajeel!" she whined as he deftly reached into the car, wrapped one arm around her waist and carefully dragged her out of the car, "I can walk on my own!" but her complaints fell on deaf ears as Gajeel closed the car door and slowly helped her down the pavement that led to the bar.

"Doc says you've gotta take it easy these next few days," he replied with a smirk, seemingly enjoying her discomfort.

"Yes. But I don't think Doctor Porlyusica meant I wasn't allowed to walk two inches without your help."

He shrugged in faux confusion, "we'll never know will we?"

"You're impossible," she muttered as she reluctantly allowed him to lead the way. He seemed to think that she was some sort of porcelain doll, liable to break into thousands of tiny pieces if he took his eye off her for one second. No matter how many times she told him she could do something on her own he didn't seem to want to listen. In the end she simply resigned herself to it, deciding that it was easier to go with the flow than argue too much with him. Anyway, annoying though it was, she couldn't deny it was extremely cute to have him doting on her so much.

It was early evening when she had finally been given the all clear by the hospital and so she was fairly certain the bar would be full. Although Doctor Porlyusica and Gajeel were both very insistent on her getting rest when she returned her, she was quite looking forward to seeing all of her friends at the bar.

Gajeel hadn't told any of them she was awake yet, and she wanted to surprise them.

"What's the smile for?" Gajeel asked as he pushed open the bar door and directed her through it carefully.

"Just excited about surprising everyone," she replied, still smiling as she stepped through the threshold of the bar.

Like she had predicted, the bar was brimming with familiar faces. Her smile dropped slightly as everyone turned to stare at her. The atmosphere felt rather subdued. They were all standing round the bar, covering someone seated on one of the stools she couldn't quite see.

"L-Levy?" Lucy was the first to speak, "you're awake! _You're awake_," the bubbly blonde left her spot beside Natsu and bounded across the room, "I was so worried," she mumbled, embracing Levy gently.

After Lucy had finished hugging her a few more people stepped forward and hugged her, but she noticed the majority of them stood by the bar, staring warily at whoever was seated by the bar.

"What's wrong?" she asked quietly, wondering why they were all staring at her and Gajeel with wary looks on their faces, "is everyone ok?"

"Everyone's ok," a familiar voice said and at the moment Levy felt her blood run cold.

_No. No. No, no, no!_

"And I'm so glad you're ok, Levy," David said breathlessly as he pushed himself up from the barstool and smiled weakly at her, "so, so glad."

"What is he doing here?" she asked wildly, frantically turning to Lucy and Erza with pleading eyes.

"I-" Lucy began, but David cut her off.

"I asked your parents where you live," he said honestly, "they were...reluctant to give me your address, but I just had to know you were ok. I haven't been able to sleep just thinking about you."

"You should've thought about that before you left me to die, _David_" she replied back coldly, subconsciously leaning into Gajeel. She didn't notice, but he had gone extremely tense.

At her words, she heard a sharp intake of breath from the rest of the room and she suddenly understood the tense atmosphere she had walked into. Although her friends at the bar didn't know it was David's fault she had been in the hospital, she had told them about her cheating ex-boyfriend.

"I was coming back for you!" he protested, taking a step forwards, "I was!"

She gasped as he crossed the distance between her and extended a hand, possibly to place it on her shoulder. Whatever he wasn't going to do, he didn't have the chance.

His howl of pain echoed throughout the now silent bar and he reeled backwards slightly, clutching the arm Gajeel had roughly slapped away.

"This doesn't concern you," he spat out, glaring at Gajeel with nothing but contempt and dislike etched onto his face,

Gajeel on the other hand grinned, "didn't think I'd get the chance to pound your face in so soon."

Concern flitted across David's face briefly but he masked it well, "and what reason do you have to do that, you...you...brute."

Out of the corner of her eye, Levy noticed Cana shuffling around the crowd of onlookers whispering something in their ears.

"Are you really taking bets?!" she hissed towards the brunette who suddenly looked very put out.

"I _was_," she huffed, going back to her seat, "but nobody's betting against Gajeel. There's no point!"

"Well look at him," Gray called and pointed at David, "if Gajeel get's beat by that I don't think I could associate with him anymore."

"So harsh Gray-sama," Juvia breathed, "but Juvia agrees. Gajeel has to fight for Levy."

"She's not going anywhere," Lucy muttered, rolling her eyes, "Gajeel just needs to kick his ass because he _hurt _Levy."

"If you lose, I'll tell Gildarts to put you on night shifts for the next two months," Erza yelled.

Levy blinked, "you aren't supposed to encourage him!"

David looked around in bewilderment, as if he were surrounded by a bunch of animals, "I'm not fighting you, you moron," he sniffed, "I came to talk to Levy, and I would appreciate it if you'd leave!"

That was when David made his mistake. He took three quick steps forwards and shoved Gajeel in the chest.

Now, David wasn't a weak man. He was fairly muscled and spent a fair few hours in the gym every week. But, he wasn't Gajeel.

As soon as his open palm made contact with Gajeel's chest, Gajeel was ready. He pushed Levy gently, but enough to make her stumble backwards. He grabbed ahold of David's arm and used it to shove him backwards roughly.

With a grunt of pain, David stumbled into the table behind him. Before he even had the chance to right himself properly, Gajeel was standing in front of him again. At that point, David noticed the look of pure fury in Gajeel's eyes, and quite wisely, knew to feel fear.

"L-listen," he stuttered, waving his arms wildly in front of his face as Gajeel bent down slightly and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

"No, _you _listen," he snarled, "if it wasn't for her, I have police here on your ass right now. Got it?"

David nodded meakly, feeling sweat trickle down his nose.

"She's mine. Now and forever and I swear on everything that is holy, if you ever come near her again, not even her compassion will save you. Understand?"

He nodded again.

Gajeel smirked, "good," he said simply before pulling back his arm back and slamming his fist square in the middle of David's face. He thought he heard a crack.

_"Gajeel_!" Levy shrieked as he let David drop to the floor, clutching his bleeding nose and blubbering obscenities at him.

Smirking, Gajeel turned back to find Levy staring at him uncertainly, "what? I told you what I'd do."

"But did you need to _punch him_? I think he got the message!"

He shrugged, "just in case."

Groaning, David stumbled to his feet, "I'll get you for this," he spat, blood trickling down his nose and into his mouth, "I won't forget."

Gajeel barely spared him a glance as he walked wobbily towards the exit of the bar and fled, still wailing curses.

As soon as the door slammed shut behind him, the bar erupted in cheers.

"I'm so sorry!" Lucy gushed, squeezing Levy tightly once again, "I didn't know about...well...you know. I just thought he was worried about you! We never would've let him stay if we knew..."

"It's _fine_, Lucy," Levy replied, squeezing her back to let her know everything was ok, "I'm fine."

One by one, all hers and Gajeel's friends came up to them to either congraulate Gajeel, _("Nice punch, I'm pretty sure that left a black eye and a broken nose" Natsu chuckled as the two bumped fists) _or to wish Levy well soon. The burns on her arms were healing quite fast, as was the bruise on her upper arm. To her dismay, the burn on her face was still quite prominent, but Doctor Porlyusica had assured her it would fade with time.

They stayed downstairs in the bar for a few hours, until Gajeel noticed her yawning, at which point he transformed into "Overly Protective Gajeel Mode" and loudly announced that he was putting her to bed.

That in turn garnered a few cat calls from Natsu and Gray, but for once, Gajeel ignored it and simply focused on helping Levy get to her room.

"I'm glad I have friends like them," she said as they walked up the staircase to her apartment.

"Yeah. They're alright."

She shook her head and gently smacked his chest. After the whole ordeal with David she had felt strange.

On the one hand, she had wanted to cheer Gajeel on and perhaps ask him to punch him a few more times. But the other, more dominant part of her, couldn't help but think it was all wrong. David had wronged her, but she had accepted it and moved on. As long as she never saw him again, she knew she'd be ok.

As she stuck her key in the hole and pushed her door open, she glanced sideways at Gajeel and knew it wasn't the same for him.

"Still thinking about that jerk?" he said suddenly, as if he had read her mind.

Sheepishly, she nodded, stepping through the door and crossing the living quickly to collapse on her couch, "I'm..I'm just not a vengeful person."

"Even against someone who hurt you?"

She nodded as shuffled over slightly as he sat himself down and draped an arm around her shoulder, "I mean...that pain's always going to be there, but I don't see the point in hindering happier times by thinking about the bad ones. I'm happy now. With you. I can forget about him."

"You're a better person than me," he admitted gruffly.

"Maybe that's why we're together. We balance each other out."

Gajeel made a face, he was never good at emotional discussions and the like. He preferred to avoid them like the plague.

Sensing his inner turmoil, Levy chuckled before leaning up and pressing a soft kiss on the base of his neck, "it's ok. I'm not going to get all soppy on you, I'm just...I'm just glad I have you on my side."

She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed contentedly.

He smiled, as brought his hand up to rub her head, "you're really small," he said bluntly, "and I'd hate to lose you. So...and so, don't leave my side."

Her smile widened as she pressed her head closer into him, "I promise," she whispered, and at that moment, she knew it was going to be a promise she would never break.

**THE END**

**A/N: **I feel oddly hollow now this is over. But, I'm not going to say much here. Skip on to the epilogue


	20. Chapter 20

**Smokin' Hot**

**Summary: **In years to come, her children would ask, 'how did you and Daddy meet?' and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."

**Epilogue; **Full Circle

A young boy with messy black hair and what appeared to be a permanent scowl on his face, crouched down on his haunches and stuck his arms out in front of him, "come on then," he muttered grumpily as a tiny blue haired girl stumbled slowly towards him.

Her lips puckered in determination as she took two wobbly steps forwards before falling onto her bottom and landing on the soft grass.

"Da!" she cried, happy with her movement.

The boy shook his head, "no good Leah," he said sternly, "you've gotta reach me."

The girl, Leah, frowned at her brother, "da?"

"Into my arms," he sighed in answer to her obvious question.

Her mouth fell open into a little "o" as she realised what he wanted from her. Putting on her determined look again she slowly pushed herself up into a standing position and moved her chubby legs forward.

"There you go," he said as he watched his youngest sister walk slowly towards him.

It took a while, and she fell over two times, but eventually she reached him.

"Yaaaaah," she laughed, allowing her tiny body to collapse into her brothers outstretched arms.

"Good girl," he said with a small smile, wrapping his arms around her and picking her up with ease, "you can have that chocolate now."

Leah squealed with joy as she allowed her brother to carry her back into their house.

"Why do you always do that?"

Another voice spoke out once they had entered the kitchen. The boy looked up and found his other sister sitting at the table with a bowl of chocolate ice-cream doused in chocolate sauce in front of her. Her long blue hair was pulled into a messy ponytail and she had specks of ice-cream dotted messily around her mouth.

"Do what, Kaida?"

Kaida scowled at her brother and waved her spoon accusingly in front of his face, "make her work for everything! Just give her the chocolate, Ryos!"

Ryos ignored his twin sister and settled Leah into her high-chair around the table.

"And stop ignoring me you butt!"

Ryos continued to ignore her as he moved to the fridge and plucked out two pieces of chocolate. He unwrapped them both and handed one to Leah who gurgled happily before sticking the bar in her mouth.

He then slipped into the seat next to Kaida and slowly nibbled on his own chocolate bar.

Frustrated at his lack of response Kaida grunted and lashed out, kicking her brother under the table.

"Ouch," he grumbled, rubbing his shin, "what was that for?"

"Stop ignoring me!"

"Stop being annoying!"

"Da! Da!"

"You tell him Lee," Kaida whooped, deciding that Leah's outburst was in her favour.

"She was agreeing with _me_," Ryos snapped, deciding that the outburst was in _his_ favour.

"Girl power," Kaida sniffed, "you're outnumbered little bro."

"We are _twins_."

"I was born before you, Momma told me so."

"Daddy told me I was first."

"Daddy lied."

"Momma lied."

"Daaaaa!"

"Thank you Lee."

"She was agreeing with _me_."

"I hate you," Kaida huffed, "you're always acting like you're a adult."

"You're always acting like a baby."

Screeching in fury, Kaida dropped her spoon back into her bowl and lunged across the table, pushing Ryos to the ground.

In seconds the two eight-year-old twins were rolling around on the kitchen floor, throwing weak punches at each other.

"Staaaa, staaa!" Leah cried, her eyes welling up with tears quickly as she watched them fight, "M-maaaaaa-maaaaa!"

In seconds, light footsteps could be heard making their way downstairs and soon enough an extremely frazzled Levy appeared in the kitchen. Her hair was dripping wet and she had only a thick towel wrapped around her petite body.

"What is going on in here?" she moaned, upon seeing her two eldest children scrapping on the floor, "Ryos! Kaida! Stop that right now, you're getting your good clothes dirty!"

Sighing, she bent down and plucked them apart,

"Oh Kai," she groaned, "your dress. And your hair! It took me forever to get it into that ponytail! You had to stay neat for just ten minutes whilst I got ready, what happened?"

Kaida glanced down sheepishly at the yellow dress she was wearing, which now had great big chocolate handprints and drips down the front.

"I forgot…"

"And you, Ryos," Levy shook her head disapprovingly, "_why_ do your trousers have grass stains on them?"

"I was teaching Leah how to walk…"

Sensing the worse, Levy turned to her youngest and almost wept. The pretty light red dress she was wearing was riddled with large grass stains and her chubby face was smeared with chocolate.

"Da!" Leah gurgled happily, unable to read the situation in the room.

"Five minutes," Levy sighed, walking across the kitchen to pluck Leah from her high-chair, "I leave you guys alone for five minutes and this happens?"

She wiggled about so Leah was safely positioned in her arms and then whirled around and pointed at her twins, "alright, upstairs with me."

"But Momma I haven't finished my ice-cream," Kaida cried.

"Upstairs Kaida Redfox!"

Kaida huffed and spat her tongue out at Ryos before flouncing up the stairs, careful to stomp as hard as she could.

"You too Ryos," Levy said sternly, "we're going to have to change your trousers now."

"Sorry Momma," he said quietly before following his sister up.

"And you, little miss," Levy cooed, jiggling Leah in her arms, "I'm happy you were walking but not today of all days."

"Da, da, waahhhh!"

Sighing once more, Levy dashed up the stairs behind her children, feeling very wary of the fact that they were running late.

"Kaida get _off _your brother!" she groaned upon seeing Kaida pin her brother down, stick her finger in her mouth, and then attempt to ram it in his ear.

Huffing in annoyance, Kaida reluctantly rolled off her brother, "he called me a jerk."

"You _are _a jerk!"

"I-"

"Enough!" Levy ordered, "why can't you two just get along? Me and your Aunt Rianne were never like this."

"That's because Aunty Rianne is _awesome_," they both said with grins as they thought about their favourite aunt.

"Well at least you can agree on that," Levy mumbled, "but you two should be nicer to each other. What kind of example are you setting for Leah?"

Hearing her name mentioned, Leah suddenly clapped her hands together and gurgled happily.

"See, Leah agrees with me," Levy said with a laugh as Leah continued to clap, "now, Ryos, hold your sister whilst I finish getting dressed. Can you do that for me?"

Ryos nodded and reached out for Leah who happily settled herself into her brothers arms.

"Good. Now please, _please_, please stay put for five more minutes, ok guys?"

"Yes Momma," they chorused, and after staring at them suspiciously for a few long seconds, Levy disappeared into the bathroom that adjoined her bedroom.

"Why do we even have to wear this stuff," Kaida moaned, picking at the dress she wore, "why can't I just wear my normal clothes?"

"Because your normal clothes aren't suitable," Ryos said primly, "this is a special event. Daddy's getting _honoured!"_

_"I know what's happening Ryos_," Kaida spat back, "and Daddy wouldn't make me wear this stuff anyway."

Levy could hear the conversation from her bathroom and couldn't help but laugh at Kaida's words, knowing them to be true. It had been enough hassle for her to get Gajeel to even wear his suit.

She emerged from the bathroom five minutes later with her pulled into a loose bun and wearing a lime green halter neck dress.

"You look pretty Momma," Ryos said as she emerged.

"Mmhmm," Kaida agreed, "Momma looks awesome."

She smiled, "thank you sweeties, now. Ryos look through that hamper in the corner and pick out those grey trousers I bought you last month please."

She took Leah from him and in a flash he was bounding towards the hamper.

"Kai, I need you to go in the big drawers in your room and bring me back a white vest and the pretty black skirt you hate."

"_Momma_."

"This is your own fault," Levy said sternly, refusing to be swayed by Kaida's extremely good puppy dog eyes. Realising that her mother wasn't going to budge on the skirt issue, Kaida flounced out of the room mumbling angrily under her breath.

Shaking her head at her daughter's stubbornness (which Levy _knew _she had inherited from Gajeel), Levy moved towards the dresser in the corner and pulled out a few items of clothing for Leah.

"Which one sweet cheeks?" Levy cooed, holding up dresses for Leah.

"Tha…waa," Leah chortled, grabbing a cute grey dress with a butterfly stitched in pink on the front. Agreeing that it was suitable for the event, Levy grabbed it out of the draw and walked back to the bed to dress her youngest.

"Done Momma," Ryos said stepping in front of Levy looking smart in a pair of light grey trousers and a white dress shirt.

"Doesn't Ryos look smart," Levy gushed, "you look very grown up, sweetie."

Ryos smiled, he had always had a strange obsession with acting older than he really was.

"_Yuck, yuck, yuck_," Kaida snapped, stomping back into the room wearing a pleated black skirt adorned with glitter and a simple white vest.

"You look cute," Levy replied, "put on that pink cardigan and those glittery pink pumps please."

"_Why can't I wear my boots?"_

"It won't match. Please Kaida, just do what I say."

"S'not fair."

"Then sit down at wait for me to do your hair please," Levy said, ignoring her grumbles. She tugged Leah out of the light red dress and slipped the grey one on deciding that the grey one looked better anyway. She ran her fingers through Leah's short blue hair and then placed her in the middle of the double bed so she didn't fall off whilst Levy dealt with Kaida.

Still moaning, Kaida sat down on the floor beside Levy's feet and allowed her mother to comb out the knots she had strangely managed to get in under an hour.

"This is gonna be so boring," Kaida grumbled as Levy combed out her long locks.

"It'll be fun," Levy said, "Sting is going to be there."

Ryos' eyes lit up at the thought of his best friend attending the event, but Kaida simply rolled her eyes.

"Sting's weird."

"No he's not," Ryos said; quick to defend his friend.

"Ryos is right. Sting is lovely, you make sure you're nice to him Kai."

Kaida rolled her eyes.

"And Asuka will be there, I know you like Asuka."

"I guess…"

"Don't you want to support your Daddy?" Levy asked curiously.

"I do! I just don't see why we have to wear these stupid clothes."

"A lot of important people will be there. Your Daddy and the rest of the guys are getting honoured by the _mayor_. You can't just show up looking scruffy," Levy explained as she wound Kaida's thick blue hair into a neat ponytail.

"It's not rocket science," Ryos mumbled condescendingly.

"Shut up Ryos!" Kaida yelled balling up her fists, "or I'll pound you!"

Despite her violent threat, Levy giggled, "you're just like your Daddy," she mused,

Ryos wrinkled his nose, "she's not. Daddy's awesome. Kaida is annoying."

"Say that again you freak!"

"Daddy's awesome. Kaida is annoying."

"I'm gonn-"

"Enough!" Levy yelled, "Ryos, stop teasing your sister."

"Tch."

"Kaida, stop threatening to beat up your brother."

"Tch."

"I just don't see how she's like Daddy," Ryos couldn't help but mumble and he thought about everything he knew of his father.

Gajeel was cool, calm, laid back, and always let them have extra ice-cream at dinner. He wasn't quick tempered and violent like his stupid twin.

Levy smiled ruefully, "she's like how your Daddy was a long time ago. When we first met he was exactly like Kai. He's still got that side to him, he just doesn't show it to you guys. He's mellowed out through the years, I think that's because of you guys, you've softened him."

"Never, ever, ever, tell him I said that," she added quickly, knowing he would take it horribly wrong.

Kaida smiled brightly at the thought of being just like the man she idolised the most.

"Momma?" Ryos asked curiously, he wanted to know more about his father before they were born. It was fascinating to him that his mother knew a different side to his father that was still unknown to him.

"Mhm?" Levy asked.

"How did you and Daddy meet?"

"…"

"Momma?"

Kaida turned around curiously and found her mother was a bright red.

"…well…" she swallowed thickly, "I burnt down my apartment complex."

**THE END**

**A/N: **FINISHED! Wow. Ok this took a lot longer to finish than I originally anticipated but I'm really happy with it and I hope you guys enjoyed it. Please review, since it's the final chapter I think you should ^_^

I really loved writing this and thank you for all your feedback and everything!

Also: YES, Ryos is Rogue Cheney's real name and if you're involved in the Fairy Tail fandom on tumblr you've probably seen the "crack" theories that Rogue and Sting are Gajeel + Levy's and Natsu + Lucy's children from the future BECAUSE THEY TOTALLY LOOK ALIKE. I really love that theory so I based their son on Rogue. And I based Natsu and Lucy's child on Sting even though he only appeared by name in this epilogue ^_^

Rogue – 8

Kaida – 8

Leah – 1 year 3 months

Sting – 8

Asuka – 9

Welp, that's the end. Thank you for accompanying me on this ride. Maybe check out Against the Current, my new Gajeel x Levy fic.

ONCE AGAIN, THANK YOU 3


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